Adobe dedicated 2025’s annual Adobe MAX event to present the newest edition of Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes over 100 new features added to Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and other solutions to empower all kinds of creatives even further.
During the last year, Adobe has enriched its application suite with a large number of cutting-edge tools, including the Selection Brush for Photoshop, Generative Shape Fill for Illustrator, an innovative AI-based audio workflow for Premiere Pro, Generative Remove for Lightroom and many others.
After the dates and location for Adobe MAX 2025 were announced, everyone was extremely excited for the developers to continue the trend set by Adobe Sneaks last year, and Adobe exceeded everyone’s expectations by the amount of innovation they added to Creative Cloud.
Let’s examine each of these Adobe MAX announcements and evaluate how they can be beneficial to creatives who rely on these free Adobe software for their work and hobbies.
Photoshop was significantly improved with the addition of the Distraction Removal in the Remove tool. This feature lets you get rid of unnecessary parts of an image, like random passersby in the backdrop of your architecture photo or irritating power lines ruining the serenity of your landscape shot. Distraction Removal automatically recognizes and deletes wires and people and generates relevant, context-appropriate content to replace them.
The developers have also continued to evolve Adobe Firefly a generative AI that offers two main options: Generative Fill and Generative Expand, as they are now backed by the reinvented Firefly Image Model, allowing you to receive highly realistic results while having an increased level of control over the detail, lighting, and colors of the generated elements. Meanwhile, the latest addition – Generate Similar, lets you create multiple variations of the same image until you find the most suitable option.
In Adobe Photoshop (Beta), they’re adding a pair of new tools to further facilitate your creative workflow. For starters, Generative Workspace allows you to experiment with various ideas in a more time-efficient manner using generative AI directly in Adobe Photoshop (Beta). This is groundbreaking since the majority of AI image generators limit and slow down your workflow by only producing a couple of results and restricting you to a single prompt at a time, which can be very time-consuming.
With Generative Workspace, you can work on several concepts at the same time without being forced to wait. It allows you to search and reuse prompts and pictures to generate new batches of images while the previous task is still in progress. Once you find a result you enjoy, it can be conveniently imported and edited in Photoshop.
Adobe MAX 2025 made it clear that Lightroom will streamline the process of getting the desired image retouching results. Its Generative Remove feature is now offered to all users, making it easier to select and detect various objects as well as remove them from an image without a trace.
The addition of Quick Actions (Early Access) will increase your efficiency by recommending changes that account for your specific image. Meanwhile, Content Credentials (Early Access) allow you to add your personal or company name, social media credentials, and a rundown of applied edits with a digital signature integrated into the Content Authenticity Initiative.
At the Adobe Creative conference, the developers have also covered a variety of smaller enhancements to this AI photo editor, including improved performance, expanded HDR support, and Smart Albums.
During the latest Adobe MAX conference, it was revealed that Adobe Illustrator will receive an improved vector design workflow that will allow you to handle complex tasks faster and more efficiently. The introduced Objects on Path feature allows you to easily attach, rearrange, and place objects using the different paths in your creations.
Enhanced Image Trace invites you to transform hand-drawn illustrations and raster images into editable vectors while leveraging highly precise picture tracing and more streamlined editability with a smaller number of anchor points.
The Mockup tool can now be used by everyone, enabling you to design mockups for brand and clothing designs by adding illustrations and photos to real-life objects. The software will automatically adjust your artwork to fit the curves and edges of the object.
Adobe InDesign is going to receive updated generative AI functionality, including Generative Expand and Text to Image that allow you to enhance your creations straight within the layout design. If you’re currently creating a scientific or technical publication, you can benefit from the new MathML feature that can integrate math equations into your designs with improved visual clarity and accessibility.
Additionally, it’s now possible to export InDesign documents to Adobe Express to let other users you collaborate with introduce smaller edits to your designs. Create a project in InDesign, and then import it into Adobe Express in a single click, enabling non-designers to fine-tune the layout to match their personal needs (for instance, adjust the pricing or specify contact information).
You will also be able to lock individual layout elements of an InDesign project to maintain a consistent style before exporting it to Adobe Express.
Adobe Express is a simple, versatile solution that is a part of all Creative Cloud subscriptions without costing an extra fee. It’s widely used for designing social media content, videos, marketing assets, etc. while being available as a web-based and mobile application.
If you wanted to learn “When is Adobe MAX 2025 taking place?” to learn what new features will be added to Adobe Express, you’ll be pleased to hear about the Campaign Creation functionality, which enables you to create different types of content using a single design as a foundation in only a couple of clicks. Meanwhile, Rewrite will allow you to rephrase, shorten, or change the tone of text included in your content.
In the new version, you’ll be able to animate several visual elements in a single click while artificial intelligence will ensure everything looks natural. Adobe Express will also make it easier to import projects from other software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Additionally, it will let you browse and add images to your projects straight from Lightroom.
Lastly, the 1-Click Brand setup is designed for recoloring any image or illustration to match your brand identity in one click as well as designing branding templates with locked elements to help maintain a consistent look across all your projects. You can also leverage the provided calendar to share your content schedule with other users directly in Adobe Express.
Adobe Premiere Pro is adding an innovative method for employing generative AI for video editing called Generative Extend. Whenever you want to add a couple more frames to enhance a scene, make a cut to synchronize the clip with the score, or expand the footage to better fit a transition – this feature has you covered.
This feature employs Adobe Firefly to seamlessly generate frames at the start or end of a scene. Another addition announced during the Adobe MAX conference of 2025 is Content Credentials, an improved metadata standard that records traces of tampering and can be added when saving files in Premiere Pro or Media Encoder. Such data ensures you are credited for your work, can establish connections with other users, and facilitates transparency.
Project Neo offers a cutting-edge method for producing 3D web assets, designed primarily for users who are used to 2D software like Photoshop and Illustrator. This new tool allows you to design and fine-tune 3D shapes and visual assets in your browser while navigating a familiar UI and toolset.
Project Neo enables you to easily adjust and enhance different variations of a project in a non-destructive manner. All your creations can be viewed in Illustrator in vector format and edited even further.
If you’d like to share your creations with other users, Neo can generate a shareable link for inviting clients and team members to collaborate on a design. There’s also a helpful history slider that lets you view a time-lapse of the artwork's creation process.
Nearly 3 years ago, Adobe purchased Frame io, a cutting-edge creative collaboration platform. After putting in a lot of effort, they have finally transformed it into a reimagined service that will be integrated into Creative Cloud applications like Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. The new version will allow teams to personalize and handle any full-cycle creative workflow with increased speed and efficiency.
At Adobe MAX, they announced that Frame io Version 4 could now be used by the public. You can leverage it to facilitate and manage your creative workflow and file organization, streamline the review and approval pipelines, and securely share projects with interested parties and clients.
At the Adobe MAX event, many Adobe representatives gave a speech. The list of speakers includes Stacy Martinet (VP, Marketing Strategy & Communications, Adobe), Cey Adams (Artist, Adams Studio), Karin Fong (Creative Director, Imaginary Forces), Nicolas Blechman (Creative Director, The New Yorker), and many others.
The photography section was covered by such famous photographers as Lisa Carney, Lavonne Hall, Elizabeth Gadd, Seán Duggan, and others.
Having experience in both photography and image retouching fields, I believe that these sophisticated AI tools can revolutionize both industries. They can change our vision of the creative workflow by letting our imagination flow and simplifying complex tasks.
In my opinion, the three-day Adobe Creative conference unveiled the best technologies for creating multimedia products that are available today. During the event, more than 400 lectures and workshops were held on a variety of topics including graphic design, photography, video editing, animation, web design, UX design, AR/VR, audio production, and more.
