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The ever-evolving Adobe Express

Bolstered by Firefly Image 3 Model.

Karen Moltenbrey

The newly updated Adobe Express for Enterprise makes it easier and faster for company teams to generate on-brand content. The app supports AI-based content creation with Firefly Image 3 Model, which Adobe emphasizes is designed to be commercially safe. Express for Enterprise is interoperable with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Along with brand controls, companies can easily create visual content that adheres to established branding. Adobe is also working with Microsoft to develop Adobe Express Extension for Microsoft Copilot, which will enable users to create content within Microsoft 365 apps using a simple prompt directly in the Copilot chat. 

Adobe Logo

Adobe Express is a cloud-based all-in-one content creation design application for just about everything, from social posts and flyers, to PDFs, videos, images, and other types of digital assets. Adobe Express launched in 2021 as a tool mainly for schools and non-profits, but at the time, there was a ring of familiarity about it. Some may have recognized it by one of its former monikers. In 2016, it was known as Adobe Spark. In the year prior, it was known as Adobe Post.

With each successive name change, the app continued to evolve with even more features. Last March, Adobe extended the capabilities to company teams and called it Adobe Express for Enterprise.  Now, Express for Enterprise has been updated with more advanced functionality. (In case you were wondering, it is still called Express for Enterprise).   

Express for Enterprise enables companies to quickly and efficiently generate marketing content and helps keep teams—from production, to communications, sales, and others—on brand through real-time collaboration and product integration with Adobe Creative Cloud. The tools are easy to use, enabling stakeholders throughout the process to perform their specific role without having to learn complicated software. For instance, marketing designs social media posts. Designers keep the content on brand. Regional marketers localize the content. Sales polishes presentations. HR managers and others promote events.

Adobe Express provides templates, Adobe Stock assets, and tools for performing complex actions such as removing backgrounds, editing videos, and so on with one-click actions. As a result, users can deliver campaigns faster, instantly generating and customizing production-ready assets and creating endless variations of the visuals—without requiring special creative skills.

The app seamlessly integrates with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Creative Cloud, and AEM Assets. It will also integrate with Adobe GenStudio, an upcoming Adobe end-to-end content life cycle app. Adobe says Express for Enterprise will be deeply integrated into GenStudio, enabling marketers to reuse existing brand-approved content, generate variations for digital channels, activate content in Adobe and third-party applications, and measure content performance.

Adobe EX
Adobe Firefly. (Source: Adobe)

Last year, Adobe infused Express with AI functionality via its Firefly Image 1 Model. Now, the app is even more powerful with support from the Firefly Image 3 Model. With Firefly Image 3 Model, users can generate photorealistic results and do so faster than before. The  Express for Enterprise tools powered by the latest Firefly model are designed to be commercially safe for businesses to use, as is the case with the previous Firefly models— Adobe offers enterprise customers IP indemnification for imagery generated with Firefly.

This new Express release takes advantage of the latest Firefly-powered advances like Text to Image, Text to Template, Text Effects, Generative Fill, and other features like auto-translate. Users can also upload reference images and use Firefly to generate new images based on the style, mood, lighting, layout, or composition of the reference images with a single prompt.

Updates in this latest version of Express for Enterprise include:

  • Brand controls such as template locking and style controls, making it easy to share approved content for others to re-use, localize, or make last-minute edits. They also help keep users on brand with their work.
  • Bulk Create and Generate allow marketers to create design variations—including image generation—in seconds. Marketers will also be able to leverage the generate copyfeature to create and test messaging performance and adapt to channels and design types quickly.
  • Firefly Custom Models, coming soon, will enable customers to create bespoke Firefly models to generate images with stronger brand identity across tools, teams, and marketing touchpoints.
  • Projects enable teams to collaborate efficiently by sharing brand assets, libraries, files, and more in a dedicated space.

Currently in development is Adobe Express Extension for Microsoft Copilot, which will enable users to easily create on-brand content within Microsoft 365 apps with a simple prompt directly in the Copilot chat.