Adobe MAX unveils a dynamic digital future

Adobe MAX is back – and although the pandemic put a temporary hold on in-person gatherings, the resurgence of the live event for 2022, which kicked off in Los Angeles, made clear that the creative spark driving our company forward has only grown brighter over the past three years.

Welcome back to Adobe MAX

In his welcome remarks to 1000s of in-person attendees and hundreds of thousands more joining virtually from across the globe, President and CEO Shantanu Narayen laid out Adobe’s philosophy over the last 40 years:

“From inventing desktop publishing, to revolutionising imaging and design, to pioneering electronic documents, to advancing animation, gaming and video — and now, to leading in 3D, immersive digital marketing and commerce, we are focused on empowering everyone, everywhere, to imagine, create and bring any digital experience to life,” he said.

It’s a philosophy we’ll continue to build on as we celebrate our 40^th anniversary in December 2022, and a key theme in our opening session this year, the 20^th for Adobe MAX: Through a relentless emphasis on groundbreaking innovation, we are continuing to raise the bar on creative possibility.

Empowering human ingenuity

As our teams equip creators with an onslaught of new features in our creative apps, we continue to play a leadership role by ensuring our latest digital tools are advancing the larger social good. We announced how Adobe Express, our easy-to-use platform for creating social media, flyers, templates, logos and more, is now offered free of charge to over 10 million global nonprofit organisations.

“We’re building the future of collaborative creativity on an even larger scale” because creativity is now a team sport, said Shantanu. In addition, he noted how Adobe is finding novel approaches to “amplifying the power of human ingenuity” through Adobe Sensei (our AI and machine learning framework) to “free people from mundane tasks and deliver absolutely new superpowers.”

Read about the latest AI-powered featuresin Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, Photoshop and all the apps.

We are also at the forefront of efforts to enable attribution for digital media creators, while increasing trust and transparency online. “We’re extremely serious about our responsibility to make sure our technology is making a positive impact,” Shantanu said. “Through the Content Authenticity Initiative, Adobe is partnering with over 800 organisations globally to combat misinformation as well as to provide attribution and provenance for creators.”

Content fuels the global economy

Following Shantanu on stage was David Wadhwani, president of our Digital Media business, which develops our Creative Cloud apps and solutions as well as Adobe Express. David echoed Shantanu’s appreciation for everyone attending Adobe MAX and for all creatives around the world.

“We’re in awe of the people we work to serve – you,” he said. Together, he continued, Adobe and our creative partners can make a critical difference in countless people’s lives.

“We’re living at a time when content, creativity and design have never been more valued; when content is fueling the global economy; when digital content consumption is exploding; and when virtually every business needs a digital presence.” The bottom line: Both opportunities and challenges abound for creators and there’s never been a better time to meet this moment.

One way Adobe envisions doing this, David said, is by bolstering the “superpowers” Shantanu mentioned earlier. “Our goal has always been to give you the ability to accomplish anything in your mind’s eye with the most powerful creative products in the world,” David said. With the latest advances in generative technologies, Adobe is upping its game.

Imagine being able to ask Adobe Sensei in Photoshop to add an object to a scene simply by describing what you want or instructing Sensei in Lightroom “to transform night into day, alter a sunny photograph into a beautiful sunset, move shadows or change the weather,” David said. “It’s like magic.”

Creating fast & easily while in control

David’s comments also reinforced the company’s commitment to giving creators more options to complete projects quickly. In the face of increasing work demands, Adobe “is giving you more explicit control over when you want the power and precision of our desktop applications and when you want more speed and ease,” he said. “Nowhere is this more obvious than when you try Adobe Express.”

Included with a Creative Cloud membership, Adobe Express was built from the ground up to enable users to create content that stands out without requiring a huge investment of time. Express gives creators increased flexibility to do more while accelerating the pace of their productivity.

Creativity is a team sport

Expanding on one of Shantanu’s earlier themes, David described how we’re doubling down on collaboration.

“Creativity is increasingly a team sport whether you’re collaborating with other creators or asking for feedback from stakeholders,” he said, which is why next-generation tools like “Share for Review” – being rolled out across video, design and imaging – are reshaping the landscape of creative workflow. “It’s a huge time saver,” David enthused.

The latter half of our opening Adobe MAX keynote brought Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president of Creative Cloud, on stage with members of his team, who fleshed out David’s and Shantanu’s remarks by showing Adobe’s latest product innovations in action.

The presentations thrilled the crowd, which burst into applause as the team demonstrated a host of game-changing new features. Some notable demos included the new Intertwine feature in Adobe Illustrator, which makes it easy to wrap an illustration in and out of text or another illustration. And Adobe Substance 3D Modeler, which helps you create a model by using a virtual reality headset, gives you the tactile sensation of creating with your hands.

Many of the features are the direct result of input from Adobe’s global community of users.

Want more details about this year’s Adobe MAX?

• Watch the opening Adobe MAX keynote here.
• Sign up for free virtual Adobe MAX sessions, including demos of new product features.
• Read all the news from Adobe MAX.