Adobe unveils ten experimental AI tools at MAX conference

Adobe used the second day of its MAX creative conference to demonstrate ten experimental technologies focused on artificial intelligence for image, video and audio editing. The Sneaks session on Nov. 11 served as a preview venue for work still in research labs, with several past demonstrations later becoming commercial features.

Project Deep Brush lets users paint color onto walls, columns or car bodies in photos and video while preserving surface contours, highlights and shadows, aiming to let creators treat a scene as physical space rather than editing individual pixels. Project Sight Span converts a flat image, painting or illustration into a navigable three-dimensional environment, generating surrounding objects and restoring resolution once a viewing angle is fixed.

Project Screen Test enables users to define character traits, select a voice and converse with the character to build backstory and movement, after which the tool renders an animated screen test. Project Rinse Repeat copies a Photoshop edit and automatically reapplies it to other subjects in the same image, adapting shadows to new shapes while keeping the changes editable with native Photoshop tools.

For motion and audio, Project On Cue provides an “event curve” to control the timing of actions in AI-generated footage and sync them with music, while Project Live Set allows on-the-fly adjustments during video generation. Project Sound Bender turns a text description of a desired noise into generated effects on a sound canvas, letting users drag a cursor to shift the mix in real time and isolate or recombine audio from existing clips.

Project Link Up lets Illustrator users move an object and have AI match size, direction and perspective to the surrounding scene. Project Scene Sweep changes a performer’s wardrobe, styling or props across an entire video from a single prompt, potentially reducing the need for reshoots. Project Hands On marks editable control points on objects so users can reshape items without typing commands.

Adobe design evangelist Kelsey Sleigh noted that Relight, an AI lighting tool shown at last year’s Sneaks, is now a standard Photoshop feature, illustrating how some previews become shipped products. Senior principal research scientist Gautham Mysore said the tools aim to give experienced creatives more precise control, citing Sound Bender and Sight Span as examples of how professionals can apply judgment and refine results directly.

Adobe did not assign release dates to any of the ten projects and has not committed to shipping them. Most prototypes are built on the company’s generative AI research, and with AI central to Adobe’s growth strategy, some may eventually be integrated into Creative Cloud apps or the Firefly platform. The demonstrations reflect a broader effort to turn multi-step technical processes into more direct, manipulation-based interactions.