Adobe Research has helped build an AI Assistant for Photoshop that lets you edit images by simply describing what you want. Need more control? Ask for a customized set of steps and make changes yourself. Built for novices and professionals alike, the Assistant is available now in beta on Photoshop for web and mobile and in Adobe InDesign.
The Adobe Research insights behind Photoshop’s new AI Assistant
User research conducted by the Adobe Research team shaped a core design principle behind the AI Assistant: different people want different levels of creative control. Senior Research Scientist Trung Bui, who helped lead the Adobe Research team behind the project in a tight cross-team collaboration with Digital Imaging and Search, Discovery & Content AI, explains that the tool was crafted around the ways people work.
“Some want the agent to do everything for them, but others want to control the editing process and learn as they go,” says Bui. Rather than optimizing for one mode, the team built both. “We ran many rounds of user studies,” Bui comments. “In the beginning, we thought that editing was the most important thing, but users felt that asking questions and getting step-by-step answers was really important, too. So, with the AI Assistant for Photoshop, we’re providing them with all of these options.”
When a user asks the AI Assistant for an edit, such as swapping out a background, adjusting colors or lighting, or removing an object, the Assistant provides a concise list of step-by-step instructions and activates the right Photoshop tools for the job. Users can then decide to make the edits by hand or ask the Assistant to make the changes automatically.
An AI Assistant ten years in the making
Nearly a decade ago, Bui and his team were already exploring the idea of agents that could let users interact with their creative tools in a conversational way.
In some of their early published research, the research team explored ways to interact with image editing tools using natural language and, as generative AI technology advanced, they pioneered research on generative tools for everyday editing tasks. Then, in 2023, they began working on the foundational technology that powers Photoshop’s new AI Assistant.
The AI Assistant leverages the team’s research to empower users with precise, tailored answers to their editing questions. Researchers also developed a tool-linking capability. “Our tool-linking algorithm automatically detects which tools the user will need and highlights and activates the tools for them,” Bui explains.
The team shared some of their breakthrough work on multi-agent frameworks for image editing in ImageEdit-R1: Boosting Multi-Agent Image Editing via Reinforcement Learning, a research paper co-authored by Bui and colleagues at Adobe Research and the National University of Singapore, published earlier this year. With the foundation in place, they worked in close collaboration with the Photoshop product team to build a user-ready AI Assistant that fits within Photoshop’s workflows.
“Generative AI is changing the landscape for creative professionals,” explains Bui. “Now we can blend generative AI technology with conventional workflows to create an AI agent that collaborates with the user, giving them more editing power, more precision, and more options about how to use AI.”
The future of AI creativity tools: More control
Even ten years ago, when the Adobe Research team was beginning to imagine the future of natural-language interactions with creative tools, they were already thinking beyond text chats. According to Bui, a multimodal approach — where users can speak, point, and gesture to direct their edits — will continue to shape the future of AI editing tools.
Beyond multimodal interactions, Bui emphasizes the importance of control. “If you look at recent generative AI technologies, they’ll provide an outcome for you, but it might not be perfect,” says Bui. “Then most AI tools just redo the work completely, which can be frustrating and imprecise. That’s why we’re combining generative AI and manual tools to give our users better experiences. Tools like the AI Assistant fit the way creatives work.”
Photoshop isn’t the only place you’ll find AI Assistants powered by Adobe Research. You can learn about the work behind AI Assistants in Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Experience Platform, and Customer Journey Analytics.
Wondering what else is happening in Adobe Research? Check out our latest news here.
