Adobe’s next generative AI frontier: Digital documents
Over the past year, Adobe has delivered dozens of new generative AI-powered capabilities across our creative and experience applications, helping customers across every region create stunning content and memorable experiences for their customers.
Today, we’re introducing the first steps toward a new vision for generative AI in digital documents — a vision that will redefine document productivity for everyone.
Accelerating your productivity with AI Assistant
Humans and technology have been able to “talk” for years, however generative AI unleashes a whole new model for that experience. Today we introduced a beta of AI Assistant, a new conversational engine deeply integrated into Reader and Adobe Acrobat workflows. Starting immediately, customers can use AI Assistant to work more productively. No complicated implementations are required. Simply open Acrobat (and soon, Reader as well) and start using the new beta features today, including:
- AI Assistant: AI Assistant recommends questions based on a PDF’s content and answers questions about what's in the document — all through an intuitive conversational interface.
- Generative summary: Get a quick understanding of the content inside long documents with short overviews in easy-to-read formats.
- Intelligent citations: Adobe’s custom attribution engine and proprietary AI generate citations so customers can easily verify the source of AI Assistant’s answers.
- Easy navigation: Clickable links help customers quickly find what they need in long documents so they can focus their time exploring and actioning the most important information.
- Formatted output: Ask AI Assistant to consolidate and format information into top takeaways, text for emails, presentations, reports and more. A “copy” button makes it easy to cut, paste and pass along.
- Respect for customer data: AI Assistant features in Reader and Acrobat are governed by data security protocols and no customer document content is stored or used for training AI Assistant without their consent.
- Beyond PDF: Customers can use AI Assistant with all popular document formats (Word, PowerPoint, meeting transcripts, etc.)
Acrobat: The de facto standard for your most important documents
Adobe pioneered and has led the digital document category for over 30 years. We invented the PDF format and open-sourced it to the world. We also introduced AI-powered innovations like an auto-tag feature that allows companies to scale PDF accessibility as well as Liquid Mode. The models behind Liquid Mode provide an unmatched understanding of PDF content and structure, allowing Acrobat to dynamically reflow document content and make it readable on smaller screens. Thanks to Liquid Mode, Acrobat customers have read more than 1 billion PDFs on mobile devices.
Each month, hundreds of millions of people turn to Adobe Acrobat as the world standard for reading, editing and transforming PDFs. And Acrobat is everywhere — on desktops, the web, mobile devices, as a stand-alone application and embedded in leading browsers and productivity apps. Acrobat meets people wherever they live and work in an environment they trust.
Our expertise in PDF technology has laid the foundation for AI Assistant to deliver reliable, high-quality output. By combining the power of generative AI with a deep understanding of documents, Adobe will transform the way people interact with and extract value from their most important documents.
Secure and responsible generative AI
PDFs are where individuals and organizations keep, share and collaborate on their most important information. In fact, today, PDF is the #1 business file format stored in the cloud.
Like other Adobe AI features, AI Assistant in Reader and Acrobat is governed by secure data protocols so that customers can use the capabilities with confidence. Features are developed and deployed in alignment with Adobe’s AI principles of accountability, responsibility and transparency. In addition, AI Assistant features in Reader and Acrobat are governed by data security protocols and no customer content is used to train LLMs without their consent.
Read more about what Adobe is doing to provide secure, responsible generative AI features for digital documents.
The future of intelligent document experiences
AI Assistant will change how everyone interacts with, understands and gets value from digital documents, while cutting the time they spend on common tasks from hours to minutes. Working with AI Assistant, customers can transform information overload into actionable knowledge and professional-looking content. The capabilities introduced today are just the beginning of the new value Adobe intends to deliver through AI Assistant. Our vision for what’s next includes the following:
- Insights across multiple documents and document types: AI Assistant will work across multiple documents, document types and sources, instantly surfacing the most important information from everywhere.
- AI-powered authoring, editing and formatting: Last year, customers edited tens of billions of documents in Acrobat. AI Assistant will make it simple to quickly generate first drafts, help with copy editing — instantly changing voice and tone, compressing copy length and suggesting content design and layout.
- Intelligent creation: Key features from Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative models, and Adobe Express will make it simple for anyone to make their documents more creative, professional and personal.
- Elevating document collaboration with AI-supported reviews: Digital collaboration is how work gets from draft to done. And with a 75 percent year-over-year increase in the number of documents shared, more collaboration is happening in Acrobat than ever. Generative AI will make the process simple, analyzing feedback and comments, suggesting changes and even highlighting and helping resolve conflicting feedback.
As we continue to build toward a future with even more intelligent document experiences, we’re excited to work with our global customer community to test, learn and evolve during the beta and beyond. To join us in creating the future, click here.
Forward-Looking Statements
This blog contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including those related to Adobe’s expectations, plans and vision for future generative AI capabilities and offerings and the expected benefits to Adobe. All such forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this blog and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: failure to innovate effectively and meet customer needs; issues relating to the development and use of AI; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of investments or acquisitions; failure to compete effectively; damage to our reputation or brands; service interruptions or failures in information technology systems by us or third parties; security incidents; failure to effectively develop, manage and maintain critical third-party business relationships; risks associated with being a multinational corporation and adverse macroeconomic conditions; failure to recruit and retain key personnel; complex sales cycles; changes in, and compliance with, global laws and regulations, including those related to information security and privacy; failure to protect our intellectual property; litigation, regulatory inquiries and intellectual property infringement claims; changes in tax regulations; complex government procurement processes; risks related to fluctuations in or the timing of revenue recognition from our subscription offerings; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; impairment charges; our existing and future debt obligations; catastrophic events; and fluctuations in our stock price. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, please refer to Adobe’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Adobe undertakes no obligation, and does not intend, to update the forward-looking statements, except as required by law.