Adobe’s New AI Chatbot Feels Like a Helpful—but Green—Design Intern

Most AI image tools make me feel like a passenger, not a creator. They’re built for people who can’t design, letting them type a few words and get a finished product. So I was genuinely surprised by Adobe’s latest experiment: a chatbot that handles the grunt work while leaving the creative decisions to you.

The Firefly AI Assistant, which I tested in beta, isn’t another image generator. It’s a middleman that operates Adobe’s apps on your behalf. You type a request—like “make this photo more colorful”—and it explains what it’s doing step by step, naming specific Photoshop and Lightroom tools. It even described my cat as a Maine Coon from a photo that mostly showed his backside.

The results look decent at first glance. It changed my hair color and swapped a background convincingly, though some edits were oversaturated or poorly blended. An average person probably wouldn’t call it AI—just the work of a beginner.

What sets this bot apart is its transparency. When I asked it to separate objects into layers from a JPG, it admitted its first approach wasn’t working and pivoted to using masks and cropping tools. It also refused to alter my body shape or put me in revealing clothes—something other chatbots could learn from.

It’s not perfect. The bot gushes praise like a too-eager intern, and its generative additions (cigars, guns) look mediocre. For experienced designers, using it might feel like babysitting. But for someone who wants to learn while getting work done, it’s a surprisingly useful tutor.