Adobe Launches Adobe Foundry Services in Next Big AI Move

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Bloomberg Businessweek
Episode: Adobe Launches Adobe Foundry Services in Next Big AI Move
Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Guest: Hannah Elsakar, VP of Gen AI New Business Ventures, Adobe

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Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into Adobe's newest AI initiative—Adobe Foundry Services. The hosts, Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec, speak with Hannah Elsakar, Adobe’s VP of Gen AI New Business Ventures, about how the company is empowering enterprises to train brand- and copyright-safe generative AI models based on their own intellectual property. The discussion explores use cases, impacts on brand control, the evolving business model, and the broader significance of responsible AI in media creation.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Adobe’s AI Ecosystem and the Role of Adobe Foundry

• Adobe is making a major move into generative AI for enterprises with the launch of Adobe Foundry.
• The service enables companies to deeply tune AI models using their own brand assets and intellectual property (IP), spanning images, video, 3D, vector, and audio applications.
• Emphasis on Adobe’s longstanding reputation for helping businesses create and manage branded, IP-protected content.

Notable Quote:
“Adobe AI Foundry really allows Fortune 2000 enterprises to deeply tune responsibly trained AI models rooted in their own brand and IP. So we care a lot about IP protection, on brand creation—as you mentioned—across image, video, 3D, vector, audio, all those things.”
— Hannah Elsakar [03:06]

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2. Brand and Copyright Safety in Generative AI

• Unlike open, public AI models, Adobe’s models are designed for privacy and brand control.
• Content is created and kept within the company’s ecosystem, protecting proprietary IP.
• Adobe works with major brands (e.g., Home Depot, Disney) to co-develop custom AI workflows.

Notable Quote:
“This is not about putting these models out in the wild per se. This is about them being able to unlock new AI workflows and that really lets them tailor what they're doing in complex media creation.”
— Hannah Elsakar [05:09]

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3. Real-World Use Cases

• Examples: Paramount+ and Gatorade used Adobe’s generative AI tools for audience engagement while tightly controlling branding and IP.
• Approach allows companies to hand creative power to fans in a responsible, brand-controlled manner.

Memorable Moment:
“Gatorade has put out an AI-powered Firefly model on their website and that's a way for them to control the brand, put it in the hands of fandom because we all want to be part of the narrative now. So that's the responsible approach that they, both those brands, decided to take.”
— Hannah Elsakar [05:47]

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4. Business Evolution and Revenue Model

• Adobe Foundry is positioned as a natural extension of Adobe’s AI trajectory, building on tools like Firefly.
• The business model is subscription-based and centers on ongoing partnership, rather than one-off consulting.
• As models and media types evolve (from images to video, 3D, etc.), Adobe continues to develop new solutions with its enterprise clients.

Notable Quote:
“This is an ongoing relationship...as new architectures and models come out, we'll continue that journey with them.”
— Hannah Elsakar [08:13]

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5. AI, Creativity, and Authenticity Concerns

• Hosts express anxiety over how realistic AI-generated content is becoming and the implications for authenticity.
• Hannah frames AI as an enabler of human creativity—a “friendly intern” that enhances, not replaces, creative expression.
• Adobe embeds forensic watermarks and “content authenticity” technology to ensure transparency and traceability of AI-generated content.

Notable Quotes:

• “At the essence of what we believe is human creativity...These are new tools at the intersection of creativity that all of us are going to be able to figure out how to unleash our own narrative and storytelling. So think about it as a friendly intern to help you out.”
  — Hannah Elsakar [08:48]
• “Every single piece of data, every single piece of creative is stamped indelibly with a forensic watermark. So I don't think you'll be wondering from Adobe.”
  — Hannah Elsakar [09:22]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:44] Opening banter & introduction to AI video tools (OpenAI Sora)
• [02:15] Introduction to Adobe Foundry and its purpose
• [03:06] How Adobe Foundry works and focus on IP protection
• [04:33] Use cases and enterprise integration
• [05:47] Brand-controlled public campaigns (Paramount+, Gatorade)
• [07:08] Adobe’s position as a trusted AI partner
• [08:13] Revenue model: ongoing subscription and partnership
• [08:36] Addressing AI anxiety—creativity, authenticity, and transparency
• [09:22] Watermarking and content provenance

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Tone and Memorable Exchanges

• The conversation is friendly, insightful, and occasionally playful as the hosts admit to their “freaked out” reaction to the pace of AI.
• The guest, Hannah Elsakar, uses reassuring metaphors (“a friendly intern”) and underscores Adobe’s commitment to trust and authenticity.
• The episode closes on the importance of distinguishing real from fake content, with a nod to Adobe’s content authenticity measures.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive look at how Adobe is taking a responsible, enterprise-focused approach to generative AI, balancing innovation with control, trust, and brand safety. With clear examples and candid discussion, the conversation is both illuminating for business leaders and accessible to a broader audience curious about the next wave of AI-powered media creation.

Transcript

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[Bloomberg Host]

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts Radio News this is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stenbec on Bloomberg Radio.

[Tim Stenovec]

Carol, have you played around with OpenAI's Sora?

[Carol Massar]

Well, I'm going to be quite honest with you.

[Tim Stenovec]

I wrote this and then okay, be honest.

[Carol Massar]

That would be no, because I'm an honest kind of gal. But you just kind of shared it with me.

[Tim Stenovec]

I just invited you.

[Carol Massar]

I sent you an invite because I've heard about it.

[Tim Stenovec]

I've got five more people if you want. If you're interested in creating some AI.

[Bloomberg Host]

Slop, what do you have to be invited?

[Tim Stenovec]

I think this is just what they do to control the number of people who sign up for it in the beginning because it's so energy intensive but I don't know exactly why.

[Carol Massar]

Well, tell everybody. Tell, tell them Tim, what's behind that big door.

[Tim Stenovec]

So I bring this up because Adobe is doing its own thing with AI generated video and like Firefly for images, which you remember from Adobe, we've Talked about that for a couple of years now. This is supposed to be brand and copyright safe. The company out with this new product is called Adobe AI Foundry and it's essentially a model that lets companies build their own gen AI models that are trained on their own material. Hannah El Soccer is vice president of Gen AI New Business Ventures at Adobe. She joins us from Queens. Hannah, did I get that right?

[Hannah Elsakar]

You got that right. Okay, Queens. And I'm with Adobe as well, so is that.

[Tim Stenovec]

But, but that makes sense, right? Like the way that you guys think about this is you create, you can use prompts to create copyright safe videos that companies, enterprises can use in marketing, in press materials, correct?

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yeah. So AI, you know, AI has been quite the whirlwind these last couple of years. And Adobe AI Foundry really allows Fortune 2000 enterprises to deeply tune responsibly trained AI models rooted in their own brand and IP. So we care a lot about IP protection on brand creation, as you mentioned, across image, video, 3D, vector, audio, all those things.

[Tim Stenovec]

So what's the, what's the use case that you envision for these companies? I think a lot of people are having trouble understanding this new world. So you got to break it down for us in a way that's like, okay, you're telling your friend about it who doesn't even know what you do at Adobe, of course.

[Hannah Elsakar]

And you know, part of it is that we are in an attention economy and so the amount of media that we all consume now, whether it's audio, radio, video, shorts, is very high. And the key is being able to represent the brand, represent the franchise in a way that's responsible and on brand. That just takes a lot of effort and a lot of time. And so the idea of Adobe AI Foundry is that once we responsibly train these brands where you protect your own ip, they can be used in the Adobe products that marketers creatives are using, like Gen Studio, like Photoshop, Firefly Boards, Premiere Pro. These are all part of the workflow in a creative and marketing company. So it gives you trust, gives you precision and creativity.

[Tim Stenovec]

So let's say a company uses the product that you're offering, it's brand safe, they trained it on their own data, they trained it on their own materials, they put it out in the world, then that becomes part of the ecosystem that maybe some other model is trained on and it, it's kind of on the loose now. Is that possible?

[Hannah Elsakar]

I don't think that's the use. That's a great question. I don't think that's exactly the use case where I'm.

[Tim Stenovec]

No, it's not the. I'm not saying it's the use case. I'm saying it's a consequence of content being out in the wild. Whether we like it or not. What we do is training AI models.

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yeah. The way we think about it is these are enterprise grade and IP protected and so they're for the use of global leaders like the Home Depot, Disney, they're co developing this with us for their own use. This is not about putting these models out in the wild per se. This is about them being able to unlock new AI workflows and that really lets them tailor what they're doing in complex media creation.

[Tim Stenovec]

But when you say their own use, couldn't they use it on social media and say, okay, this is, you know, this is a way that we can connect with our audience through Instagram or through TikTok or something, creating one of these videos and then it's out in the world.

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yeah. I'll give you an example of one that Paramount plus did last year. They put, you know, the if campaign out there. That's a way to let fandom drive part of the brand, but they're using a responsible model behind it. Same thing with Gatorade. Gatorade has put out an AI powered Firefly model on their website and that's a way for them to be able to control the brand, put it in the hands of fandom because we all want to be part of the narrative now. So that's the responsible approach that they, both those brands decided to take.

[Carol Massar]

So put it out when they want. But they're also creating kind of their own, almost feels like private set of images or ip, as you said, that is really for them to use and to control, correct?

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yes. I mean, again, what, you know, lots of these companies have large IP that they have built over time. They're beloved franchises that we know or brands that we know and they want it to be in the driver's seat. So they actually came to us and said on this AI journey, we trust Adobe. Adobe has been with us in marketing, has been with us in creative. We feel you have a good AI approach to this and you're the one that we want to partner with. So whether it's in our products like Gen Studio for performance marketing or Photoshop, like I said, we are part of the trusted workflow that they're using and that's why they came to us.

[Carol Massar]

All right, so then let's talk about your business and what this does to drive usage above and beyond what enterprises are already doing with you.

[Hannah Elsakar]

Sure. This is really just an evolution, a natural evolution of our AI journey that started. Thank you for covering the Firefly image models in 2023. Businesses are coming to us and saying, hey, hey, we feel really good about what we've been doing. The initial base models actually didn't understand their ip. We consider that a feature, not a bug of those models. Right. Because we had license to every piece that went in. And so as they've got moved up the customization spectrum, they are now asking for world building. And that is what Foundry as an AI solution or Adobe AI Foundry offers them. And so we're really pleased to have trust from the biggest Fortune 2000 brands out there.

[Carol Massar]

Hey, one of the things that we wonder is once the model is trained by one of your customers or clients, do they need to keep paying to use it or is this a one time consulting type charge or ongoing subscription revenue for you?

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yeah, so there's always innovation. I think you see new model releases are coming out all the time. And so this is an ongoing relationship. Actually, you know, they've asked us to be more like partners with them on this long term journey. So there's evolutions of this both from image, maybe you're moving into video, maybe you're moving into 3D. And of course, as new architectures and models come out, we'll continue that journey with them.

[Tim Stenovec]

You know, we only have about a minute left, but I gotta be honest, Carol and I are a little freaked out by this technology and the implications of it a lot. And just how good it's going to get. Convince us that we shouldn't be freaked out.

[Hannah Elsakar]

I don't think you should be freaked out. Because at the essence of what we believe is human creativity and so tools like Photoshop. I'll just give you a quick story. When Photoshop launched in the 90s, that was also kind of a transformative thing and it was not well embraced. Now it's a verb to us. So these are new tools at the intersection of creativity that all of us are going to be able to figure out how to unleash our own narrative and storytelling. So think about it as a friendly intern to help you out.

[Carol Massar]

10 seconds, 15. Are we going to moments that we're like, wait, is that real or is that fake? Are we going to have a hard time as it gets better and better just very quickly?

[Hannah Elsakar]

Yeah. So we have content authenticity, which is part of our provenance. Every single piece of data, every single piece of creative is stamped indelibly with a forensic watermark. So I don't think you'll be wondering from Adobe.

[Carol Massar]

So we'll have Real Tim, real Carol, fake Carol, fake Tim for now.

[Hannah Elsakar]

Hannah.

[Carol Massar]

Really cool stuff. Interesting. Hannah Elsakar. She's vice president of Gen AI New.

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Business Ventures at Adobe.

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