Among a raft of product announcements at the 2024 Adobe Summit, Adobe GenStudio stood out for a number of reasons. The solution will allow users to take content from the planning and workflow stage, through creation and production, to asset management, delivery and performance evaluation.

In other words, it’s aimed at being an end-to-end content supply chain that, because it deploys generative AI, can be at the service of business users rather than just creative professionals. That raises questions about the ongoing status of Adobe’s lucrative Creative Cloud business (Photoshop, Acrobat and other familiar applications). It also draws attention to the plethora of genAI tools, from Firefly to Adobe Express, available to Adobe customers.

Noah Dinkin is founder and CEO of Stensul, an Adobe partner. Stensul powers no-code, drag and drop creation of emails and landing pages, and has close integrations with existing Adobe content creation tools.

The initial announcements around GenStudio late last year, Dinkin recalled, implied that it was indeed a packaged collection of existing tools. “It’s now becoming an actual product; a standalone product. In Adobe’s vision, it leverages large pieces of existing products. I don’t think it’s meant to replace Creative Cloud. I think it integrates and augments Creative Cloud. Similarly, I don’t think it’s meant to replace Workfront.”

Dinkin also noted that Adobe is beginning to talk about the democratization that genAI brings to the content supply chain. Democratization has been a theme of Stensul’s offering. “But it’s a term we hadn’t really seen Adobe use in the market and I’m not sure if that’s because they have strong center of gravity and DNA in creatives, professional creatives and Creative Cloud — or for other reasons.”

Armed with some key questions, we sat down with Don Bennion, senior director, Adobe GenStudio product marketing.

1. What is the status of GenStudio as a standalone product?

We asked first about the apparent transition of GenStudio from a portal to access existing Adobe genAI tools to a standalone product.

“GenStudio is a standalone application that will be released in Q3,” Bennion said. “It’s in alpha now.” Adobe does have a suite of applications to help manage the content supply chain, he continued. “GenStudio will exist as a standalone application that helps bring those applications together.” It integrates natively with those applications, he emphasized. “It brings new stuff to the table too.”

2. Will GenStudio integrate with third-party applications?

As described at Summit, GenStudio will have close integrations, not only with Firefly, the flagship genAI suite, but with Adobe Workfront (to manage workflows and collaboration) and Adobe Experience Manager Assets (to manage the assets created). If it’s being offered as a standalone product, where does that leave customers that have implemented — and are happy with — non-Adobe workflow software or a third-party DAM?

“First of all, Adobe GenStudio is meant to be able to be purchased without any other Adobe application,” said Bennion. “It will have some lightweight pieces that allow some of those aspects to work; for example, there will be a lightweight approval flow even if you don’t have Workfront. Workfront would be more robust. There’s also a lightweight asset portal called Content Hub.”

Deeper integrations with third-party applications is something Adobe is working on. “But the vision is for this to be able to integrate with the customer’s ecosystem of products.”

Dig deeper: Adobe continues to roll out genAI capabilities across its platform

3. Is there a tension between democratizing content creation and serving the professional creative audience?

Adobe’s origins, of course, are in the applications that now exist in Creative Cloud. That business was Adobe’s bread and butter before it began its data journey with the purchase of Omniture in 2009 and it remains a major source of revenue. Does it make sense to be on a mission to put creative in the hands of ordinary business users?

“We’ve spoken to a lot of customers, creatives and agencies at this conference and one of the themes is that generative AI is transforming the business for everybody,” said Bennion. “People understand that if they don’t embrace this transformation, they won’t be able to evolve. This will change, potentially, how content gets creative.”

Brands and agencies are under immense pressure to create more content and meet the demands of personalization at scale. “The only way that happens,” Bennion said, “is if certain tasks get automated; if folks can self-serve who couldn’t self-serve before. I think that’s helping people realize that new tools are needed, different ways of working are required.”

In other words, Adobe GenStudio will not be at the root of disrupting traditional approaches to creative. They’ve been disrupted anyway.

“Absolutely. It’s happening. And we need to participate in it ourselves so that we can continue to serve the needs of creatives and marketers, be a part of that transformation, and make sure it’s happening in a way that’s supporting them.”

Pricing for GenStudio will be available closer to release date.

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