Adobe Photoshop Adds AI Assistant to Automate Repetitive Design Tasks

[JMalone]

I don't care. It's a subscription. There are open source models that do this locally for free.

There’s no such thing as “free”. Each generation you do locally consumes electricity and if you have to hit that generate button a hundred times just to get something ok looking 4 times then that’s 96 generations of electrical waste.

 

[F1Mac]

The new features announced/released today in Photoshop (as well as Illustrator and InDesign) are fantastic. In particular, the Upscaling feature is amazing compared to what I had been using (a free app called Upscayl).

As a side note, I wish we could have a discussion about Adobe's apps on MacRumors without any thread about them being overrun with people complaining about subscriptions and uninformed commentary and opinion about what people "think" other designers want.

I'm eager to try the Harmonize feature too. This update is quite exciting actually.

 

[bradman83]

Adobe's Firefly is garbage compared to other generative AI models.

Part of the update is you can now use partner models like Gemini 2.5 for AI fill instead of Firefly since, as you note, it's garbage and Adobe clearly realizes it.

 

[Supermacguy]

Push back against the ai-ification of everything. Do not use it. Turn it off. Report to the company you don't want it.

 

[Evil Lair]

Hopefully the new generative fill is better than what is currently in '25, which is a garbage pile and one of the reasons why myself and all the artists I know are still on '24. They elude to it a little in the announcement, that these LLM generated images are all low-res so are useless for high-res print work. The older generative fill doesn't have that limitation and doesn't leave the new generative fill areas looking like Minecraft. The newer one also loves to insert random objects and people in places where you are trying to remove things.

 

[jonnyb098]

Incredible how much hate there still is for Adobe and AI.
While you keep denying reality — and the only future that exists.

The entire business area of graphic design and photo processing is dead.
Anyone still studying it is literally digging their own grave.

Photography agencies are finished.
For commercial use, everything could already be generated with Firefly 3 - and now we have Firefly 4 Ultra and Firefly 5 with full high-resolution output. Neither ChatGPT's image model, nor Midjourney 7, Imagen 4, or Grok 4 can compete with Firefly’s results when it comes to raw photos — and that’s not an opinion, but a statement from both a professional photographer and a quality control expert.

Photographers are gone. The last remnants will vanish once updated Nano-Banana algorithm reaches ultra-high-res output in early 2026, allowing anyone to generate lifelike photos of whoever and whatever they want, in QHD up to 8K.

The sector has already collapsed. People just refuse to accept it.

As a NatGeo & Getty Images photographer, ambassador of multiple camera brands, designer and illustrator, I’ve watched this unfold since 2023 — step by step.

Here in Switzerland, agencies have already stripped 90% of photographers’ relevance, and the remaining 10% — private shootings — are gone too.

Who seriously wants slow, expensive, outdated humans fiddling with cameras and editing software when you can generate entire sets incl. processing done in minutes?

Photoshop agents will execute complex prompts, know exactly what to do, and can be trained, optimized, and adapted endlessly — without degrees, without understanding of layers & masks.

On social media alone, I earned more money on the toilet than in the previous 15 years of “traditional” photography — by generating entire campaigns, selling them to businesses, and signing deals with brands that now use my generated content.

The truth is simple: AI didn’t kill photography.

Photography committed suicide by refusing to evolve.

And that’s exactly why, in parallel, I work as a senior quality manager at a neuroscience company — validating retinal AI systems that interface directly with the human visual cortex.

If outsiders had any idea what is currently being developed — and what’s already entering the PQ phase — they’d stop arguing about trivial things like Adobe subscriptions and start realizing how small their world has become.

And when they jack up the prices on all of the AI tools(inevitable as the energy needed is unsustainable) it will become so expensive you might as well hire a person back cheaper even if they’re a little slower. I think you’re being a little over the top on not needing people for certain things. Color theory is still a thing as is composition , etc. Pulling humans out of key branding decisions with that knowledge is extremely risky. Also human activity is how marketing revenue is generated. It’s the entire principal behind it. Humans clicking things. As well as extreme moral and ethical issues with a future you describe.

My personal conspiracy theory is that a kill switch is going to have to be pulled soon on much of this. If what you say is true the people could literally make up whatever they image they want to destroy peoples lives in many ways. And with little oversight on this stuff it’s a disaster waiting to happen. And is already happening.

Or not and it basically means the end of modern civilization in a very bad way.

Either way, strap in. It’ll be an interesting ride!

 

[JungleNYC]

As soon as Adobe went subscription, we bowed out. Our company will not support that madness. We've been just fine w/ Affinity and others.

 

[JungleNYC]

Incredible how much hate there still is for Adobe and AI.
While you keep denying reality — and the only future that exists.

The entire business area of graphic design and photo processing is dead.
Anyone still studying it is literally digging their own grave.

Photography agencies are finished.
For commercial use, everything could already be generated with Firefly 3 - and now we have Firefly 4 Ultra and Firefly 5 with full high-resolution output. Neither ChatGPT's image model, nor Midjourney 7, Imagen 4, or Grok 4 can compete with Firefly’s results when it comes to raw photos — and that’s not an opinion, but a statement from both a professional photographer and a quality control expert.

Photographers are gone. The last remnants will vanish once updated Nano-Banana algorithm reaches ultra-high-res output in early 2026, allowing anyone to generate lifelike photos of whoever and whatever they want, in QHD up to 8K.

The sector has already collapsed. People just refuse to accept it.

As a NatGeo & Getty Images photographer, ambassador of multiple camera brands, designer and illustrator, I’ve watched this unfold since 2023 — step by step.

Here in Switzerland, agencies have already stripped 90% of photographers’ relevance, and the remaining 10% — private shootings — are gone too.

Who seriously wants slow, expensive, outdated humans fiddling with cameras and editing software when you can generate entire sets incl. processing done in minutes?

Photoshop agents will execute complex prompts, know exactly what to do, and can be trained, optimized, and adapted endlessly — without degrees, without understanding of layers & masks.

On social media alone, I earned more money on the toilet than in the previous 15 years of “traditional” photography — by generating entire campaigns, selling them to businesses, and signing deals with brands that now use my generated content.

The truth is simple: AI didn’t kill photography.

Photography committed suicide by refusing to evolve.

And that’s exactly why, in parallel, I work as a senior quality manager at a neuroscience company — validating retinal AI systems that interface directly with the human visual cortex.

If outsiders had any idea what is currently being developed — and what’s already entering the PQ phase — they’d stop arguing about trivial things like Adobe subscriptions and start realizing how small their world has become.

Yup, we just produced an entire suite of content for broadcast, and for the first time ever didn't use a single human for art. Not even sketches, animation, etc. The only humans we used was the guy inputting the commands, and the editor. And next time we might not even need the editor.

In all it was about a half dozen people who did NOT get good-paying work they normally would. The clients saved a crapton of money, and we made a bit more. But these jobs just… disappeared.

 

[Dredd67]

I hate this. They even added AI bs in Acrobat.
Come on Adobe, I'm trying to fill a form, don't interrupt me every 2 seconds by shrinking my window and pushing your AI nonsense. I DO NOT NEED TO SUMMARIZE THIS FORM.

Same in Photoshop now with this pesky bar that seems to pop up in the most annoying places all the time. Even if find a tweak to fix one of their shenanigans, they manage to throw you 5 new annoying AI goodies in your face.

Sadly, I can't leave the adobe suite, it's still the only one to do what I need, and the muscle memory is a big plus. But man is it hard not to cancel this subscription.

 

[CaTOAGU]

Agreed. But it is not about what you—or we—want. That has been made clear enough. Anyone running a company right now only has AI and layoffs on their brain. Many know this is not going to end well, though they want to get theirs while they can. Some are true believers. Collectively, we as a people don’t seem to know how to stop it, or care enough to do what is necessary to stop it.

It just heard a recording of a person being laid off from an AWS role this morning that was repeated to thousands, it seems. It was done via highly HR-ed script, and AI was mentioned directly three times.

The end of this line is something critical breaks one day and no is left on earth that knows how to fix it.

 

[CaTOAGU]

Yup, we just produced an entire suite of content for broadcast, and for the first time ever didn't use a single human for art. Not even sketches, animation, etc. The only humans we used was the guy inputting the commands, and the editor. And next time we might not even need the editor.

In all it was about a half dozen people who did NOT get good-paying work they normally would. The clients saved a crapton of money, and we made a bit more. But these jobs just… disappeared.

Great, now scale that out and who is left to buy whatever product you're selling.

 

[jz0309]

Yup, we just produced an entire suite of content for broadcast, and for the first time ever didn't use a single human for art. Not even sketches, animation, etc. The only humans we used was the guy inputting the commands, and the editor. And next time we might not even need the editor.

In all it was about a half dozen people who did NOT get good-paying work they normally would. The clients saved a crapton of money, and we made a bit more. But these jobs just… disappeared.

And the next step is that your client will use AI themselves and thus eliminate you and your job ... way to go

 

[th0masp]

And the next step is that your client will use AI themselves and thus eliminate you and your job ... way to go

Hey wait a second! Not fair!!