Adobe Experience Manager Review 2025: Assets Overview

By Ann Young, Kate Debela 15 days ago, Apps and Software

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Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a powerful digital experience platform built for large companies looking for pro-level tools for managing their content, organizing digital assets, and enhancing client interaction.

Even though it’s hardly a feasible option for small businesses due to its high licensing and deployment costs, it’s an excellent choice for large enterprises, as its AI features, streamlined interface, and integration with other Adobe software facilitate process automation.

In this Adobe Experience Manager review, we will outline the key advantages and possible shortcomings of this solution in detail.

Pros

AI digital asset management
Advanced form-building system
Streamlined interface

Cons

Can be implemented only by experts, making it even more expensive
Pricier than open-source software

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) has recently released multiple notable upgrades and new features:

AI Agents integration. Adobe released its Agent Orchestrator and Brand Concierge. These algorithm-based tools were built to increase client engagement and automate marketing processes. Using these agents, companies can optimize their sites, organize content, segment the target audience, and develop personalized client experiences.
Enhanced cloud storage support in AEM Forms. The most recent release (20133) for AEM Forms has improved cloud storage support. Now, the program allows for direct PDF uploads to Azure Blob Storage. This upgrade facilitates storing and retrieving files as well as integrating solutions with cloud workflows.
WebP image support in AEM assets. Adobe Experience Manager assets now allow users to work with WebP images. It facilitates extracting metadata, generating thumbnails, and customizing assets. The program also makes it simple to add Smart Tags to such files, which further contributes to improved asset management.

“The Brand Concierge is more of a personalization powerhouse. It automatically recommends content and augments user experiences based on behavior and previous interactions. It’s like having an AI-driven marketing strategist on standby.”

Vadym Antypenko

Tech Gear Specialist

Pricing

What makes it different from other content management solutions that often have problems of payment is that Adobe Experience Manager does not have fixed prices. Its pricing can be adjusted depending on a client’s needs.

According to the published reports, licensing fees start at $200,000, making AEM hardly suitable for companies with a small budget. Those who consider it too expensive can use one of the available Adobe Experience Manager alternatives.

Here are the main things one should keep in mind when considering prices:

Enterprise-level pricing. AEM is not for small or mid-size businesses.
Custom solutions. AEM implementation is customized, which adds to its price.
Maintenance and support fees. A company seeking to deploy AEM should add such fees to its long-term expenses.

Key Features Overview

Enterprise-level content management. AEM Sites functions as an advanced CMS, allowing companies to manage content and assets across various platforms and channels, including web, mobile, email, social media, etc. The main features are:

AI-powered content tracking. Adobe Experience Manager assets streamlines content management.
Template & layout editor. It minimizes the amount of time needed to create pages.
Automated text summarization. It saves text in the most suitable formats for various screen sizes.

Advanced data collection. AEM Forms facilitates creating and using forms to collect client data, surveys, and feedback. The key advantages are:

Drag-and-drop tool for creating forms. It can be used even by employees without any technical background.
Scalable authoring. It enables teams to reuse form elements to expedite their routines.
Thematic styling. This feature facilitates achieving consistency across multiple forms.

AI-driven digital asset management (DAM). It might be challenging to organize extensive digital content libraries. AEM Assets utilizes AI to streamline asset organization. This digital asset management software for photographers and other professionals has the following handy tools:

AI-based metadata tagging facilitates searching for media files.
Automatic asset optimization allows users to save files in the right size for specific platforms.
OmniSearch function enables users to find assets quickly.

User Experience & Interface

If you have ever used any enterprise-grade paid or free Adobe software, you won’t face any issues trying to navigate the interface, as the company is known for releasing products that are convenient to use.

It might be challenging to describe the AEM experience as the platform has extensive functionality. Adobe prefers to make text clear and keep layouts intuitive, making its products easier to use.

For instance, the OmniSearch function allows users to start searching quickly. They just need to start typing, and the program will scan the metadata of the available assets to find the information they need. The AI-driven tools allow sorting the results by relevance to save the time they typically spend on finding illustrations or drafts.

Support

Adobe recognizes that enterprise-level clients need to quickly resolve any issues when deploying complex projects. The company created a detailed Adobe Experience Manager tutorial to help users master the AEM system. If you don’t find a solution in one of these articles, you can ask for assistance on a community forum or contact the support team by phone.

Adobe Experience Manager vs Competitors

	Adobe Experience Manager	WordPress	Drupal
Best for	Enterprises, large-scale content management	Bloggers, small businesses, startups	Government & complex web apps
AI features	✔️	❌	❌
Customization	✔️	✔️	✔️
Pricing	$200,000+	Free (with paid hosting)	Free (developer costs apply)
Ease of use	✔️	✔️	❌

How AI Helps to Manage Tasks in AEM?

Smart content automation. AI automates user workflows:

Facilitates adding tags to images and videos with relevant metadata
Enables users to generate content summaries or translations automatically
Supports content clock personalization depending on user preferences

Intelligent workflows & task routing. AI enables users to handle tasks quickly by doing the following:

Automatically assigning tasks to the available employees based on their performance or skills
Suggesting deadlines or notifying users of possible delays based on analyzed data
Expediting turnaround and eliminating possible bottlenecks in campaigns or during content release

Smart asset management. Adobe Experience Manager’s AI can:

Provide recommendations regarding relevant images or videos for particular content
Discover duplicate or poor-quality assets
Make the smart search feature even more useful by adding visual recognition capabilities

Personalized experiences at scale. The AI system considers behavior patterns and segments audiences:

It sends targeted content to users from a specific segment when they are more likely to react to it
It helps marketing professionals to test and enhance experiences by performing AI-driven A/B testing

Insights-driven decision making. AI allows companies to access useful information, such as:

Which content delivers the top-level performance across channels
How clients react to digital experiences
How content can be made more engaging

Who Should Use Adobe Experience Manager?

Adobe Experience Manager is a top-level solution for large enterprises that simplifies content, asset, and digital experience management thanks to its AI-powered automated tools.

Recommended for:

Major corporations handling multiple content streams.

Companies with deep integration with other Adobe software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign.

Enterprises that need to automate their complex routines and use algorithm-based tools to manage assets.

Not for:

Small companies or startups. Due to the high Adobe Experience Manager cost, this solution is too expensive and challenging to master, making it hardly a feasible option to consider.

Companies without a team of in-house IT professionals as AEM is challenging to integrate and deploy.

Users who want to find a basic CMS. WordPress and Drupal are more affordable alternatives with intuitive functionality.

FAQ

• What are the main differences between AEM and other content management systems?

What makes AEM different from typically chosen CMS platforms, like WordPress or Drupal, is that it was built for large enterprises that are interested in all-in-one solutions for managing digital experiences. It stands out for its AI tools, customization options, cloud support, and integration with other Adobe software. Even though it’s pricier than other options, it is more advanced as well.

• Is Adobe Experience Manager cloud-based?

Yes, users can access AEM via the cloud. It enables companies to scale up their operations while minimizing infrastructure management costs. Such solutions can be deployed on premises or as a part of hybrid systems, allowing companies to control their data fully.

• What industries use AEM?

AEM is preferred by businesses from the industries centered around digital experiences, including retail, e-commerce, finance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, media, and entertainment.

• Does AEM support AI-driven content management?

Yes, AEM includes Adobe Sensei, an algorithm-based assistant that allows clients to automatically add tags to their content, use advanced personalization options, and access analytics tools. After the recent update, users can deploy AI agents to automate their marketing efforts and augment digital experience management.

• What are the system requirements for AEM?

AEM can be accessed via the cloud, deployed on premises, or run in a hybrid environment. The system requirements vary depending on the deployment model used by a company.

If an enterprise decides to run it on premises, it should build and maintain a Java-based infrastructure, ensure the support of database systems (MySQL, Oracle, or PostgreSQL), and streamline the integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud and other third-party software.

• Can AEM integrate with third-party apps?

Yes, AEM has APIs and connectors, which facilitates integration with third-party services, including customer management software (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics), marketing automation platforms (Marketo, HubSpot), e-commerce solutions (Magento, Shopify), and data analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics).

• Does AEM support mobile content management?

Yes, Adobe Experience Manager mobile version makes it easier for companies to manage content for mobile apps, progressive web apps (PWAs), and websites with responsive interfaces. In addition, it supports adaptive image scaling and performance optimization, making it perfect for mobile use.

Ann Young

Retouching Guides Writer

Ann Young is an expert photographer, retoucher, and writer with over 9+ years of working at FixThePhoto. Her career in digital community began after earning her degree from New York University. She believes AI can be a real helper if you know how to use it properly. Unlike many photographers, she isn’t afraid that AI tools can replace human experts in different spheres.

Read Ann's full bio

Kate Debela

Hardware & Software Testing Specialist

Kate is a travel blogger with rich experience who specializes in videography. She’s spent many years trying out apps, software, and photography gear. She focuses on gear with an excellent price-performance ratio, enabling photographers to save costs while taking advantage of the advanced functionality. She has a love-hate relationship with Apple, preferring customizable and accessible Android devices and Windows PCs over Apple's ecosystem, despite regularly testing their products.

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