- Adobe updated its image model to version 5, and it’s more powerful than ever
- Several third-party AI models are available across Creative Cloud apps
- You can even train your own AI model to stay on brand
At its annual creativity conference, Adobe MAX 2025, Adobe unveiled a number of new models, including an upgraded version of Firefly to give creatives more control over the model they use.
Speaking at the event, Digital Media President David Wadhwani explained that the creative industry is “going through an incredibly important transformation” driven by GenAI and AI models – but not all models are suitable for every application.
Wadhwani emphasized that the company remains committed to both providing its own Firefly models and expanding integration to third-party models on the basis that creative ads require maximum choice, adding that they can also fine-tune custom models.
Adobe wants you to be able to use third-party models – not just Firefly
Across the Creative Cloud ecosystem, users can choose from commercially secure Firefly models, industry-wide partner models, and personal models.
Key to Adobe’s own portfolio is Firefly Image Model 5, now in public beta. Described as Adobe’s most advanced image generation and editing model to date, it promises highly realistic generations with accurate lighting, texture and anatomy.
Version 5 generates natively in 4MP for more detail before any upscaling takes place.
Beyond its own models, however, what sets Adobe apart from many other AI tool providers is its use of third-party models – albeit from select companies, with a notable omission from Meta.
Topaz Bloom and Topaz Gigapixel are new to Photoshop for generative upscaling, while Topaz Bloom and ElevenLabs Multilingual v2 are now available for multilingual voiceovers.
Additional partner models include Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana), Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.1 Kontext, and others from OpenAI, Runway, Luma AI, Moonvalley, Pika, and Ideogram.
Adobe’s final improvement, in an ideal development for marketers who need to stay on brand, is support for Firefly custom models, which are currently in private beta via a waiting list.
This allows creators to train personalized models for product assets with consistent styling and branding, and can be customized by dragging and dropping existing assets (without the need for text prompts).
As Adobe continues to expand its AI tools across the Creative Cloud suite and Firefly portal, the company is clearly positioning itself as an enabler without imposing the vendor lock-in typical of this sector.
Blending its own commercially secure models with partner integrations and easy-to-train custom capabilities, creatives are rewarded with more choice and control than before, while maintaining access to Adobe’s deeply powerful apps and workflows.
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