I’ve been on the receiving end of Layer 1226 before and it’s not fun. While I’m pretty good with my layer naming hygiene, I’m not perfect. So I welcome anything that can help rename my layers. Apparently, when Adobe showed off this new AI feature at their Adobe MAX user conference last week, it drew a big round of applause. (Figma’s had this feature since June 2024.)

There’s more than just renaming layers though. Adobe is leaning into conversational UI for editing too. For new users coming to editing tools, this makes a lot of sense because the learning curve for Photoshop is very steep. But as I’ve always said, professionals will also need fine-grained controls.

Writing for CNET, Katelyn Chedraoui:

Renaming layers is just one of many things Adobe’s new AI assistants will be able to do. These chatbot-like tools will be added to Photoshop and Express. They have an emphasis on “conversational, agentic” experiences — meaning you can ask the chatbot to make edits, and it can independently handle them.

…

Express’s AI assistant is similar to using a chatbot. Once you toggle on the tool in the upper left corner, a conversation window pops up. You can ask the AI to change the color of an object or remove an obtrusive element. While pro users might be comfortable making those edits manually, the AI assistant might be more appealing to its less experienced users and folks working under a time crunch.

A peek into Adobe’s future reveals more agentic experiences:

Also announced on Tuesday is Project Moonlight, a new platform in beta on Adobe’s AI hub, Firefly. It’s a new tool that hopes to act as a creative partner. With your permission, it uses your data from Adobe platforms and social media accounts to help you create content. For example, you can ask it to come up with 20 ideas for what to do with your newest Lightroom photos based on your most successful Instagram posts in the past. 

These AI efforts represent a range of what conversational editing can look like, Mike Polner, Adobe Firefly’s vice president of product marketing for creators said in an interview. 

“One end of the spectrum is [to] type in a prompt and say, ‘Make my hat blue.’ That’s very simplistic,” said Polner. “With Project Moonlight, it can understand your context, explore and help you come up with new ideas and then help you analyze the content that you already have,” Polner said.