News

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly redefining creativity, but Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen isn't worried.

"I'm thrilled to be part of such a large company. There are surely some product people who are having sleepless nights because they're trying to solve that next hard problem to deliver value to customers," Narayen told Moneycontrol in an interview.

However, at the end of the day, Narayen believes their strength lies in having a "really good layered stack" as the competitive landscape intensifies.

"We think about data and what you're training your (AI) models on. But the real value for customers is not in the data or the models, it's in the interfaces ... That's the real magic and that's what we are focused on," he said, citing examples of features like Generative Fill in Photoshop, Generative Extend in Premiere Pro or Acrobat AI Assistant in Adobe Acrobat.

Generative Fill allows users to easily add or remove content from photos using simple text prompts in the company’s image editing and design application, Photoshop. Meanwhile, Generative Extend enables editors to lengthen video and audio clips by adding new frames at the beginning or end of a clip in its video editing software, Premiere Pro.

Acrobat AI Assistant adds a conversational interface within PDFs, allowing users to summarise documents, and ask questions to get quick answers. All these features are powered by Adobe Firefly, the company's suite of generative AI models and tools.

India opportunity

Narayen also believes that India's next growth as an economy will not come from software code but from creativity, and the next unicorns won't be applications but creators and artists in India.

"We believe that AI is accelerating and expanding the creative aperture even further across ideation, creation, and production" he said.

Narayen noted that creativity has transformed various industries, including entertainment, gaming, and animation among others.

"Increasingly, if you think about the role that creativity plays in marketing, there isn't a single company on the planet that isn't thinking about how they create a personalised experience for their customers," he said.

Hence, when one considers the "explosive amount of content" being created today, whether in financial services, healthcare, or travel and entertainment, Narayen believes there is a massive opportunity for India, as all of the content's imagination, creation, and production can happen in the country.

During his keynote speech at the World Audio Video Entertainment Summit 2025 (WAVES 2025) on May 1, Narayen also highlighted India's potential across the four layers of the AI stack - data, models, agents, and applications.

"By training models on Indian cultural, linguistic, and historical data, we have an opportunity to create new forms of digital sovereignty" he said. Local large language models will also offer the opportunities to combine domain and AI/ML expertise to build India-specific models, he added.

"We also have the opportunity in India to innovate on its decades of customer support and sales expertise to develop autonomous agents and lead AI-driven workflows...AI will also enable us to build brand new applications that serve consumers and enhance governments" he said.

Read: MC Exclusive: PM Modi meets Adobe, YouTube, Instagram and India Inc chiefs at WAVES; discusses AI, copyright

India can lead ethical AI globally

India, the world's second-largest internet market, also has the opportunity to lead in ethical AI on the global stage, Narayen said.

"It was really encouraging to hear the Prime Minister talk about the importance of responsibility ... At the end of the day, when you think about what creativity is, creative intellectual property is soft goods, which can be pirated," he said in the interview.

Therefore, protecting your style and the uniqueness of what you do is an important part in this era of AI, he said.

Narayen referred to the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), which was started by Adobe, Twitter (now X) and The New York Times in 2019, and now has over 4,500 members.

"The idea is how can you provide attribution for the piece of content that people create to the original person who did that. I think that's an important responsibility that we have. For the Indian market to explode, you certainly need to respect that (principle), because that's how you create indigenous economy" he said.

Read: Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen on developing GenAI standards, building AI models, more

CAI has developed Content Credentials, an open technology that allows creators to attach additional information or metadata to a piece of content, like images, to increase transparency about its origins and history.

At WAVES 2025, Adobe also announced a series of new initiatives to fuel the country's growing creator economy.

The company is collaborating with WAVES Bazaar, the global e-marketplace launched by the government to connect India's creative talent pool with international markets.

As part of this tie-up, Adobe will offer discounted Creative Cloud subscriptions to help thousands of sellers improve their marketing with better creative content. The firm will also provide India’s best creative talent from the Creatosphere challenge with access to its creative products.

Adobe is also collaborating with Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) to advance digital creativity and innovation in education. As part of its collaboration, Adobe will make a range of investments in IICT including free access to Adobe Creative Cloud for students, curriculum development, faculty enablement and training and student mentorship.

Other initiatives include a partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to launch a new AI-powered Creative Experience Studio (ACES) for the India market. The product is designed to help businesses and public sector enterprises engage their target audiences with greater impact, speed and scale. It aims to deliver culturally relevant, high-impact content, and personalized marketing experiences for customers.

Adobe has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Accenture to upskill students from over 50 design institutes in India.

The company, which entered India in 1997, has its largest workforces outside the United States in the country with over 8,500 employees across five campuses and a new 12-floor office tower in Bengaluru. Adobe also plans to open a new office site in Noida, Uttar Pradesh by early 2026.

DAILY-EVENING

DAILY-EVENING

Discover the latest Business News, Budget 2025 News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!

${res.must_watch_article[0].headline}

Stock Market Holiday MI vs RR Live Score Jammu Kashmir News Live GST Collections in April Heatwave in India Q4 Results 2025 Live WB Madhyamik Result SSLC Result 2025 Kolkata News IPL Points Table 2025

Business Markets Stocks India News City News Economy Mutual Funds Personal Finance IPO News Startups

Home Currencies Commodities Pre-Market IPO Global Market Bonds

Home Loans up to 50 Lakhs Credit Cards Lifetime Free Finance TrackerNew Fixed Deposits Fixed Deposit Comparison Fixed Income

Home MC 30 Top Ranked Funds ETFs Mutual Fund Screener

Income Tax Calculator EMI Calculator Retirement Planning Gratuity Calculator

Stock Markets

News18 Firstpost CNBC TV18 News18 Hindi Cricketnext Overdrive Topper Learning

About Us Contact Us Advisory Alert Advertise with Us SupportDisclaimer Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms & Conditions Financial Terms (Glossary) Sitemap Investors

You are already a Moneycontrol Pro user.