Adobe Deepens AI in Creative Workflows: Is ARR Growth Set to Scale?

Adobe ADBE is expanding generative AI across its Digital Media offerings to improve productivity and support recurring revenue growth. Firefly, Acrobat AI Assistant and Express are being embedded into creative workflows, helping enterprises, individuals, and small teams generate content more efficiently.

Ongoing innovation and deeper AI integration are emerging as key growth drivers. The new Firefly App enables users to generate and edit images, videos, vectors and audio through a unified interface, while a new mobile version extends creative capabilities on the go. These additions follow the launch of Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra and the general availability of the Firefly Video Model, which supports 4K video generation through simple text prompts.

The advancements are strengthening momentum in Express. Tools like Animate from Audio and Clip Editor are enhancing content production, while integrations with Google Ads and Vimeo are improving distribution. Express usage within Acrobat rose nearly 11x year over year in the second quarter of 2025, driven by growing interest in embedded design tools. Adobe also added 8,000 new Express for Enterprise customers, including ServiceNow, Workday and Major League Baseball.

The adoption of Adobe’s AI-powered tools is growing across enterprise teams. Newell Brands is using Firefly and Express to optimize its content supply chain, while Cisco and Ulta Beauty are scaling Adobe’s AI stack across creative workflows. These developments supported 12% revenue growth in the Digital Media segment, which reached $4.35 billion in the second quarter. AI-led offerings are expected to drive sustained ARR momentum for ADBE in the long term.

Adobe Faces Competition in AI-Powered Creative Workflows

Adobe faces growing competition from Apple AAPL and Microsoft MSFT, both of which are advancing AI-led creative platforms tailored to individuals and small teams.

Apple is upgrading Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro with AI features, such as voice isolation and text-to-video generation. Apple’s tools are optimized for speed and precision, increasingly overlapping with Adobe Express and Firefly.

Microsoft is scaling Microsoft Designer and embedding Copilot across Office apps to support automated content creation. Microsoft’s tools now allow users to generate visuals, presentations and documents with AI. With Microsoft 365’s broad user base, Microsoft is deepening its competitive position against Adobe’s Express and Acrobat workflows.

Adobe’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Adobe shares have declined 14% year to date, while the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector has returned 1.8% and the Computer-Software industry has risen 12%.

ADBE Performance

Adobe stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 6.58X compared with the Computer and Technology sector’s 6.34X. Adobe has a Value Score of C.

ADBE Valuation

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $5.16 per share, up by 9 cents over the past 30 days, indicating 10.97% year-over-year growth.

Adobe Inc. Price and Consensus

Adobe Inc. price-consensus-chart | Adobe Inc. Quote

The consensus mark for Adobe’s fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $20.60 per share, which is up by 24 cents over the past 30 days. The figure indicates 11.83% growth over fiscal 2024.

Adobe currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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