It’s never been easier to make an image. Even for people who don’t consider themselves creative, translating an idea into an illustration, graphic, video—any format, really—is now as simple as typing a prompt into a box (quality not guaranteed). 

Adobe knows this. The company, which has long been the tool of choice for professional creatives, is now looking to “aggressively acquire the next generation of Adobe loyalists,” as the outgoing CEO, Shantanu Narayen, put it during a recent earnings call. That means bringing the not-so-creative among us into the fold with tools like Firefly AI and Adobe Express. Even its professional-grade tools are eyeing novice creatives with AI agents that make navigating complex tools easier.

The strategy appears to be working. So far this year, Adobe has increased the number of “Creative freemium” users—people using free versions of Firefly and Adobe Express—by 70%, reaching 100 million monthly active users. Meanwhile, its professional-focused business remains healthy and growing, though at a slower rate (15% year over year as of Q3).

As Adobe kicks off its biggest event of the year with its Adobe Max conference, Fast Company spoke with Eric Snowden, Adobe’s SVP of design, about what this push into freemium means for the way his team thinks about designing tools, the challenges of bringing Adobe products into third-party apps like ChatGPT, and why this might truly be the most exciting time to be a designer. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Fast Company : For the last few years, Adobe has really pushed its identity as a company that makes creative tools for everyone—not just professional designers, but also people who don’t necessarily consider themselves designers at all.

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