Adobe’s next act: Web-based, AI, and NFT products

In 2012, Adobe made a huge pivot.

The owner of creative tools like Illustrator, Premiere, and — every memer’s favorite verb — Photoshop went from selling single software licences to a cloud-based subscription offering called Creative Cloud.

While the cloud business model is familiar to many of us now, it was a huge change at the time.

Adobe’s value has exploded to $300B+…

… roughly a 20x gain since moving to the cloud.

Last week, the company held its creative conference (MAX 2021) and rolled out tools capitalizing on new industry shifts:

• Web-based: Facing significant pressure from $10B startup Figma, Adobe launched web-based versions of Illustrator and Photoshop that will allow for more real-time collaboration (a related mood board feature is called Canvas)
• AI: Adobe’s Sensei platform uses powerful AI to help creators with tasks like masking, color transfer and object positioning (a wild tool lets you take a photo of someone and digitally change their pose)
• NFT: Photoshop now has a feature that links to crypto wallets and verifies a creator as the original artist behind a non-fungible token (NFT)

It’s not clear if these changes will be as significant as Adobe’s shift to the cloud, but we’re pretty sure meme artists will be able to put them to good use.