Adobe and Disney Form AI Strategic Alliance

Adobe and Disney have announced the formation of a strategic alliance to develop AI tools for Disney to use across its properties and media.

The two companies made the announcement at the Adobe MAX creativity conference. The alliance builds on decades of collaboration between the two companies and will help Disney deploy AI to accelerate its creative processes.

“Adobe and The Walt Disney Company have had a decades-long collaboration, where Adobe’s creativity, productivity and customer experience orchestration tools have supported everything from Disney’s content creation pipelines and workflows to personalized marketing campaigns and digital experiences that come to life in the parks,” said Hannah Elsakr, vice president, GenAI New Business Ventures, Adobe. “Today’s announcement marks the next chapter of the relationship, where the two companies will build a new creative foundation that thoughtfully deploys AI as an accelerant for artistic vision, creativity and guest engagement.”

“Disney has always embraced innovation, and this alliance with Adobe builds on a longstanding relationship between two companies that share a deep commitment to creativity,” said Becca Vodnoy, senior vice president, Corporate Alliances, The Walt Disney Company. “By bringing together Disney’s world-class storytellers and beloved brands with Adobe’s technology, we have an exciting opportunity to give our creative teams new ways to explore and develop their ideas and bring Disney stories and experiences to life for guests and fans around the world.”

Adobe says it will give Disney early access to its AI, creative, and media tech. The two companies will work together on AI models specifically tuned to Disney’s needs.

With Adobe Firefly Foundry, Disney will work directly with Adobe on generative AI models tailored to Disney’s properties that are human-centered and artist-led. Customized on Disney properties, these proprietary models are trained on unique world knowledge (character attributes, environments, visual styles) to generate commercially safe and production-ready outputs, while accelerating work and enabling the development of more creative projects.

Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development is already using Adobe Firefly Foundry to bring new ideas into the theme park development pipeline with greater speed, including a sketch-to-image model that transforms hand-drawn concepts into fully rendered 2D concept art, as well as a custom image model that generates on-brand, franchise-accurate creative assets.

The alliance between the two companies illustrates how much AI is transforming industries across the spectrum.