The most immediate pressure point for Adobe is its Creative Cloud suite, according to Murray, as competitors threaten Adobe’s dominance in the market. Adobe had 850 million monthly users across Acrobat, Creative Cloud, Express and Firefly, according to its most recent financial results.
“AI-native tools are collapsing the value of skill, time, and complexity, especially for students and prosumers,” he said. “Adobe will need to rethink pricing and packaging around outputs rather than tools, while dramatically simplifying the user experience.”
Nevertheless, Adobe retains a “significant structural advantage” in the strength of its product ecosystem and user base, said Bell. “Its tools remain deeply embedded among professional designers and creative teams, supported by a strong community built over decades.”
