Adobe has announced the integration of a new generative AI tool in its Acrobat and Reader platforms. Named simply ‘AI Assistant,’ the model is capable of summarising and responding to specific questions about documents, as well as assisting in their creation and editing. The tool has been released in beta to users of Adobe’s Acrobat Standard, Pro Individual and Teams subscription plans.
“Generative AI offers the promise of more intelligent document experiences by transforming the information inside PDFs into actionable, knowledge and professional-looking content,” said Abhigyan Modi, Adobe’s senior vice president of its Document Cloud division. “PDF is the de facto standard for the world’s most important documents and the capabilities introduced today are just the beginning of the value AI Assistant will deliver through Reader and Acrobat applications and services.”
Adobe AI Assistant to summarise key documents
Adobe’s AI Assistant is capable of not only generating summaries of documents, says the firm, but can also provide citations for any responses it provides to users so that they can verify the authenticity of relevant outputs. These answers can also be formatted for email, presentations or reports, and for different workflow platforms like Word and PowerPoint. The AI assistant is also capable of working across multiple documents at once and assists in the drafting process, providing feedback on the tone and the length of the text in question.
Its new AI Assistant has also been developed in alignment with Adobe’s AI Ethics processes, the firm confirmed. As for the models it draws upon, the firm explained that it takes an “LLM-agnostic approach, selecting best-in-class technologies that address a range of customer use cases,” while prohibiting third-party AI programs from being trained on Adobe customer data.
New AI assistant part of general Adobe AI push
Adobe has bet heavily on the transformative potential of generative AI for its business over the past year. Last summer it released its Firefly tool, a web-based image generation tool, simultaneously promising that it would indemnify any unfortunate users caught up in copyright lawsuits deriving from their usage of the platform. This was followed by its acceding to the Biden administration’s AI watermarking initiative and its purchase of Rephrase.ai, an AI marketing startup based in India.
Less productive have Adobe’s efforts been in doubling down on its core design software business. Its purchase of rival Figma, a deal that would have seen Adobe acquire the startup for up to $20bn, was repeatedly criticised by international regulators. The bid was eventually withdrawn in December 2023. “While Adobe and Figma shared a vision to jointly redefine the future of creativity and productivity,” said the former’s chief executive Shantanu Narayen at the time, “we continue to be well positioned to capitalize on our massive market opportunity and mission to change the world through personalized digital experiences.”
Read more: UK regulator expresses misgivings about Adobe’s Figma deal
