According to The Verge, Adobe is launching new, free apps for Photoshop, Acrobat, and Adobe Express directly inside ChatGPT starting today. Users can now upload a file and give conversational instructions, like “Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background,” to edit photos, manipulate PDFs, or generate designs without switching apps. The apps offer a selection of results or UI controls like sliders, and projects can be opened later in Adobe’s full desktop software. These ChatGPT integrations are available globally on desktop, web, and iOS, with Android support for Photoshop and Acrobat coming soon. This move follows OpenAI’s broader push for app integrations, which recently faced backlash for looking too much like ads.
Adobe’s ChatGPT Gambit
So, Adobe’s basically giving away a slice of its creative toolkit for free inside someone else’s platform. That’s a huge shift. For decades, their power has been locked inside complex, expensive software. Now, you can ask a chatbot to tweak a PDF or design a poster. It’s a smart, defensive play. They’re meeting users where they already are—in the AI chat interface—instead of forcing them to come to Creative Cloud. But here’s the thing: it also feels like an admission. It admits that for a ton of casual tasks, opening full-blown Photoshop is overkill. This is about capturing the “good enough” editing market before someone else does.
The Fine Print and the Friction
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the full Photoshop. It’s a controlled, conversational wrapper around specific functions. The Verge notes it can edit sections, apply effects, and adjust settings like brightness. That’s powerful for quick fixes, but it’s not a replacement for a skilled editor with layers and masks. And I’m skeptical about the “conversational” workflow for anything nuanced. Describing a visual change in words is often harder than just using a slider. Will saying “make the vibe more melancholic but also vibrant” actually work? Probably not yet. This feels like step one in a long journey toward truly agentic AI that understands creative intent.
The Bigger Competitive Battle
Look, this isn’t just about user convenience. It’s a strategic flank against Google’s Gemini, which added its own AI image editing in May. By embedding in ChatGPT, Adobe instantly arms OpenAI’s massive user base with credible design tools. It also counters the existing ChatGPT app for Canva, a direct Express rival. Adobe’s playing platform politics, and it’s a clever move. But it also makes them dependent on OpenAI’s platform rules and whims. Remember, OpenAI just had to pull back on app promotions because users thought they were ads. That’s the risk of living in someone else’s house.
Lowering Barriers, Raising Questions
Ultimately, this is about lowering the skill barrier. That’s a good thing for accessibility. But it does make me wonder about the future of those skills. If basic photo correction and PDF wrangling become chatbot commands, what happens to the value of that knowledge? And for Adobe, the monetization path is fuzzy. These apps are free. Is the plan just to be a gateway drug to the paid, full-featured Creative Cloud? Probably. They’re betting that once you start a project in ChatGPT, you’ll want to “open in Photoshop” to finish it. It’s a foot in the door. Whether users walk through it is the real test.
