Adobe Photoshop will soon have an AI-powered Actions panel that allows photo editors to type in prompts to access thousands of potential edits in one click. On Wednesday, April 09, Adobe announced the development of AI agents for several programs, including Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The move will allow AI to handle repetitive tasks like resizing images for export, as well as one-click edits and in-app, content-aware tips for to learn the software.
Adobe says that it will debut the first “foundation for what will become our first creative agent in Photoshop” during Adobe Max London later this month.
The new Actions panel will allow Firefly AI to analyze the image, recommend edits, and then make those edits in one click. Adobe says that the Actions panel will also allow editors to use natural language prompts to access more than 1,000 one-click actions in Photoshop.
Photoshop's new Actions panel will use AI to handle tasks automatically
The tool, Adobe says, will help handle repetitive tasks to speed up the editing process. But the new Actions panel can also be used as a learning tool, asking the AI for suggestions and then showing how to accomplish that with Photoshop’s different tools.
The announcement is more of a sneak peek than a full unveiling of the feature, which is expected to happen at Adobe Max London, scheduled for April 24. But Adobe calls the AI agent creator friendly. “The Photoshop agent will be able to help you learn the tool, share feedback and suggestions, and even handle repetitive tasks like preparing assets for export,” Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s Digital Media Business Chief Technology Officer, wrote in a blog post. “You stay in control in the creative driver’s seat, while your agent helps you out where you need / want it to. This is part of how we’re building the most creator-friendly approach to AI in the industry.”
Adobe Photoshop already has an Actions panel, but the photo editor’s current version is used to manually record repetitive tasks so that the software can then automatically repeat those steps on another image. Currently, the user presses record in the Actions panel, completes the edits, then saves that action. The action can then be repeated on another image by selecting the action and pressing the play button.
For example, I have a Photoshop Action to resize images to web size. I also have a Photoshop Action saved to reduce skin redness. The Action will create the different color adjustment layers for me, but then I will have to go in and manually brush over the skin so that the edit is only applied to the correct areas. With Adobe’s Agentic Actions teaser, I suspect that the new Actions panel could potentially even select the right areas to apply the effect to and even create new actions without having to record them in the first place.
Adobe stressed that it doesn’t consider the AI agent creative, but a way to free up more time for professionals and to teach beginners without starting from templates. Creators remain in control over how the AI agent helps, the company said.
“We’ve always believed that the single most powerful creative force in the world is the human imagination,” Greenfield wrote. “AI agents are not creative, but they can empower people – enabling individuals to unlock insights and create content that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to and enabling creative professionals to scale and amplify their impact more than ever. For people at all levels, agentic AI’s potential makes starting from templates feel stale and old-fashioned. For professionals, it offers a pathway to growing their careers by freeing up time to do more of the things only they can do.”
AI agents will also be coming to Premiere Pro
While the AI agent in Photoshop already has a name and a launch date, Adobe notes that it is working on AI agents for the video editor Premiere Pro as well. Last Week, Adobe launched Media Intelligence, a tool for searching for the right clip using AI text prompts. The company is working to build on that to develop an AI agent that can not only recognize clips but also take actions, including developing a rough cut.
What is an AI agent?
While Photoshop has several generative AI tools, an agent is a different sort of AI. Agentic AI is a smart software that is capable of making decisions and taking actions automatically based on its training data.
An AI agent often – but not always – takes on the form of a chatbot. But an agentic AI chatbot doesn’t just answer questions, it can carry out the task itself automatically. A non-agentic chatbot could tell you how to make the sky pop in Photoshop. An agentic AI could carry out those steps for you.
In-person tickets to Adobe Max London are currently sold out, but the event will also be accessible online on April 24.
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Photoshop's agentic AI isn't here yet, but you can get 71 free Photoshop Actions in the meantime. Or, browse the best photo editing software.
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