For years, Adobe has been the gold standard for image and video software in the enterprise market. But today, it’s facing a very different kind of competition. A wave of A.I.-powered startups can now generate and edit content in seconds, often for a fraction of the cost. Tools like Higgsfield promise instant, click-to-video workflows for marketers who value speed above all else, while platforms like Canva have made “good enough” design accessible to almost anyone.
Adobe’s response to that disruption isn’t to out-generate everyone. It’s to focus on something harder: orchestration. The idea is to move content from concept to delivery without breaking brand rules, budgets or trust. And the person leading that strategy is Varun Parmar, Adobe’s general manager for Firefly Enterprise and GenStudio, the company’s core A.I. platforms launched in 2023.
Firefly is Adobe’s family of generative A.I. models, powering image, video, audio and vector creation across Creative Cloud. GenStudio is the enterprise layer, designed to plug those capabilities directly into marketing systems like Google and Amazon Ads.
“As brands compete for consumer attention across fast-moving platforms including social media, mobile apps and e-commerce, the demand and need for relevant, standout content is skyrocketing,” he told Observer.
The creative industry is no longer short on tools that can generate images or copy. What it’s missing is a way to make all that output usable inside large organizations, where content needs approvals, legal checks, version control and brand consistency. “Brands are looking for a technology partner who has a deep understanding of their creative and marketing workflows,” Parmar said.
That’s where Adobe believes it still has a structural advantage. Long before generative A.I. entered the picture, Adobe had built tools for managing complexity: Workfront for project management, Experience Manager Assets for content libraries, and Creative Cloud for production. Firefly builds on top of that foundation.
Parmar knows this world well. He started at Adobe in the early 2000s, working on products like Acrobat and Document Cloud, then left to spend time in startups, including roles at Miro and Box. He returned in 2024 to lead Adobe’s A.I. push. The bet is that while A.I. can generate infinite content, brands don’t actually want infinity. They want controlled, on-brand content that can scale without turning into chaos.
Adobe’s A.I. approach in practice
One of the clearest examples of Adobe’s strategy is playing out at Serta Simmons Bedding, a century-old mattress company with a surprisingly complex marketing operation. Serta sells direct to consumers, through wholesalers and across thousands of retail stores. Each channel needs different versions of the same campaign.
That turns content into a volume problem. A single campaign can require hundreds of variations: different formats, sizes, languages, and retailer-specific versions. When those assets live in disconnected systems, costs rise and teams slow down.
Serta adopted GenStudio not as another tool, but as the backbone of a new creative operating model. Creative work now starts with structured intake tied to brand, channel and format, so generative A.I. can plug into a defined pipeline instead of creating random outputs.
Designers still work inside Creative Cloud. Firefly services are embedded directly into production, handling tasks like resizing, background generation and format adaptation, all within brand guidelines.
“Firefly APIs can instantly generate brand-safe background options, and Photoshop APIs assemble banner ads for every channel, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in digital content production hours. All of this is done while maintaining brand guidelines, which have been used to train the A.I. model,” said Parmar.
What makes the system work is orchestration. Assets flow back into shared systems. Reviews happen in the same environment. Instead of dozens of tools stitched together, Serta now has one visible content pipeline.
“A.I. gives marketers speed and efficiency, but the real opportunity is using it thoughtfully…Instead of replacing creativity, A.I. has made us exponentially more productive and expanded the art of the possible,” Tim Oakhill, chief marketing officer at Serta Simmons Bedding, told Observer. “A.I. (at SSB) is used as an efficiency tool, not a consumer-facing replacement for human creativity, allowing our teams to move faster without losing emotional depth.”
Adobe says GenStudio has helped Serta increase the number of customized assets it produces by ten times. That kind of scale is becoming less optional. According to an Adobe study, 71 percent of marketers expect content demand to increase fivefold by 2027.
Serta isn’t the only brand using Adobe this way. Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade, uses Firefly Custom Models trained on proprietary handbag imagery to generate brand-specific designs and marketing content.
Newell Brands, the parent company of Elmer’s Glue, Sharpie and Paper Mate, uses Firefly to accelerate illustration and visual variations across its product lines.
Mattel uses Firefly for packaging and storytelling around Barbie. Coca-Cola worked with Adobe to develop Firefly Design Intelligence, an A.I.-powered design system aimed at keeping global brand campaigns visually consistent across markets.
What all these companies have in common is a desire to remove friction: fewer repetitive tasks, fewer manual resizes and fewer lost assets.
“Our product strategy, with generative A.I., is around freeing up time and mental space for marketers and creatives. It’s about governance and responsibly deploying A.I.,” said Parmar. “That’s been a focus of ours from the start, from commercially safe Adobe Firefly models and content credentials, to working with brands on data governance and ensuring content aligns with values and avoids bias. ”
