Adobe Firefly, Sensei GenAI, and the Future of eCommerce

Recently, a group of us from IWD went to Las Vegas to attend the annual Adobe Summit.

And while we learned a lot about all things Adobe, the real star of the summit was Adobe Firefly, the company’s new AI art generator.

But before we talk about Adobe Firefly, let’s cover another compelling piece of technology that’s actually powering this amazing new tool.

AI has been a hot topic in eCommerce for the better part of the last decade and we’ve talked about how ChatGPT has already changed SEO.

But while AI like ChatGPT can help you with many text-based SEO tasks – like keyword research and blog writing – it’s not great for another very important aspect of creating content: images.

Unfortunately, creating the kinds of high-quality images you need can be expensive and time-consuming.

This is why the rise of “generative AI” (the big buzzword of the summit) is so exciting.

Generative AI refers to an advanced form of artificial intelligence that can transform everyday inputs into exceptional outcomes.

Despite the common notion that this technology is only limited to creating images and artwork, it has a wider range of capabilities beyond that.

We’ll cover some of those later.

With the right AI generator and minimal input, anyone can generate digital experiences, documents, videos, and high-quality images. AI art generators can also create "creative building blocks" like:

• Textures
• Vectors
• Brushes

All of these are essential components for creating unique content and generative AI is about to make this easier than ever.

And of all the companies at the forefront of this new field, Adobe’s two main offerings – Firefly and Sensei GenAI – easily hold the most promise.

At the moment, Adobe is already a powerhouse in the world of eCommerce.

A few years ago, they bought Magento, turning into Adobe Commerce, one of the most popular eCommerce platforms for B2B companies.

They’re also the company behind arguably the most popular analytics platform after Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics.

But that only scratches the surface.

Adobe has an absolutely massive suite of products for eCommerce companies called the Adobe Experience Cloud.

This includes the very impressive Adobe Sensei, a tool that brings user-friendly versions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to a variety of Adobe products and services, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and more.

Introduced back in 2016, Adobe Sensei uses advanced algorithms and data analysis to automate and streamline creative tasks, allowing users to work more efficiently and effectively.

For example, in Photoshop, Sensei can be used for image recognition and analysis. In Premiere Pro, Sensei can be used for automated captioning, color grading, and more.

Adobe Sensei can also be used for data analysis and insight generation in marketing and advertising, helping businesses to better understand customer behavior and preferences.

At this year’s Summit, Adobe debuted the next evolution of Sensei: Adobe Sensei GenAI.

This is a feature within Adobe's Creative Cloud suite of products that uses the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate and accelerate creative workflows. It allows designers and marketers to create high-quality, personalized content at scale, without the need for extensive manual effort.

Adobe Sensei GenAI leverages a combination of image and text recognition, natural language processing, and deep learning algorithms to generate a variety of creative assets, including social media posts, email campaigns, and web pages.

For example, with GenAI, you can input a product description (including an image) and the platform can automatically generate a variety of social media posts featuring that product.

In addition to creating content, GenAI can also help with content optimization by analyzing user engagement and feedback and then using that data to suggest changes and improvements you can make.

That’s CRAZY!

Overall, Adobe Sensei GenAI is designed to help businesses and creative professionals work more efficiently and effectively, allowing them to create and optimize high-quality content at scale.

While Sensei GenAI is huge news, the real big story from the summit was Adobe Firefly.

This new family of generative AI is designed to assist creatives in making the kinds of unique and personalized designs they need.

Whether it’s in the field of graphic design, advertising, or web design, expect Adobe Firefly to become commonplace in the very near future.

Firefly is built on the aforementioned Sensei AI technology, which is why it’s able to help designers quickly generate multiple design variations based on the parameters and guidelines they provide. This technology also has the ability to learn from your preferences, resulting in even more personalized and relevant design recommendations over time.

With the help of Firefly, creatives can spend more time refining their work and less time generating and iterating on ideas, ultimately leading to faster and more efficient creative workflows.

The Firefly technology is composed of three core components:

• Firefly Design allows designers to create unique design elements by customizing shapes, colors, and textures
• Firefly Layout generates layouts and compositions based on the input parameters and guidelines
• Firefly Style helps to create personalized visual styles by applying different filters and effects.

Adobe plans to integrate Firefly technology into their Creative Cloud platform as well, which will allow users to access the technology seamlessly from their current Adobe tools.

Right now, Adobe Firefly is only in beta, but you can still request access if you’re an Adobe user.

As we mentioned earlier, everywhere you look in the world of eCommerce these days, people are talking about AI and machine learning and how this technology will change how companies sell products online (and even how they make them).

While the sky is definitely the limit, there are three specific ways that Adobe showed us how Firefly is already being used by eCommerce companies to do more – faster and for less.

Perhaps the most obvious one is how easy Adobe Firefly is about to make product photography – an absolute essential for eCommerce companies but one that can be very expensive.

And “lifestyle photography” might be the best example of images that are both incredibly important to many eCommerce companies but can also be incredibly costly.

With Adobe Firefly, even this type of unique photography is now easily accessible to eCommerce brands of all sizes.

We saw this firsthand during demonstrations at the Adobe Summit.

For example, say your eCommerce brand sells sunglasses.

Maybe you’d like to show shoppers how they’d look on a guy who’s wearing them while skateboarding.

That’s now as easy as telling Adobe Firefly that’s what you’d like to see. Instead of telling your Art Director that and finally being able to see these photos in (at best) a week or two, Firefly will have it to you in a matter of seconds.

Maybe you’d like to see those shades on somehow jogging now instead. Once again, just tell Firefly and you’ll have it.  

Or maybe you don’t want the image to look like a photograph.

In that case, you could tell Firefly to make the image look like it was painted or drawn with pencil.

Would you rather see the guy wearing your sunglasses in the winter? The spring? Should he be in the mountains?

All of these adjustments are at your fingertips thanks to Adobe Firefly.

This is going to be a REVOLUTIONARY change for eCommerce companies.

Those that are able to leverage it are going to have a massive competitive advantage.

Those that don’t…are going to be in trouble.

Another really cool way to use Adobe Firefly that we learned about is creating unique styles and fonts for the text on your site.

So, maybe you want to create a new logo.

Or maybe a particular blog post would be more eye-catching with some fun textual graphics.

Whatever the case, it couldn’t be easier to make these kinds of graphics with Adobe Firefly.

This is especially cool because these types of textual graphics are usually too expensive for the vast majority of companies. Unlike product photography, these graphics are only going to be used once or twice, so it’s often not worth it to bother creating them, even if you know they’ll look amazing.

Whether you need them for your thumbnails, YouTube videos, blog posts, or emails, you can quickly create these amazing graphics with Adobe Firefly.

The last scenario we were introduced to at the Adobe Summit was probably the most mind-blowing.

You can use Adobe Firefly to create actual product mockups from scratch.

Long before you create amazing lifestyle photos for your products or cool graphics to better brand them on your site, you need an actual product.

And before you have that product, you need a “mockup” that can show manufacturers and designers what your product needs to look like.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, this has never been easier thanks to Adobe Firefly.

Whether you want to see what your watch would look like with a different color strap or a different material or see what a different bezel or face would do to the overall style, this is no problem for Adobe Firefly.

So, make whatever changes you want in a matter of minutes, send the mockup to your manufacturer and you can have a brand-new product out to your customers faster than ever before.

Like we touched on earlier, Adobe Firefly is going to be an absolute game changer for eCommerce companies in 2023. Combined with the power of Adobe Sensei GenAI, creating custom images that look amazing is now possible for any eCommerce business owner.

…well, as long as they use Adobe.

So, if you’ve been putting it off, now would be a really good time to take a serious look at everything that Adobe has to offer. Feel free to contact us with any questions you have.

Adobe has always been a powerful suite of tools, but thanks to its investment in artificial intelligence, Firefly could soon make it the main reason many eCommerce companies are able to dominate their markets.