The most slept-on product from Adobe that people should be using

Summary

MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth

Episode: The most slept-on product from Adobe that people should be using
Date: June 13, 2026
Featured Guest: Patrick Brown, SVP of Global Marketing at Adobe
Host: Benjamin Shapiro

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Episode Overview

This episode explores underutilized Adobe products that marketers should leverage, focusing on practical, AI-driven solutions for both individual productivity and large-scale creative production. Benjamin Shapiro interviews Patrick Brown, Adobe’s SVP of Global Marketing, about hidden gems in Adobe’s suite, with discussions on AI’s rapid integration into marketing, the future of SaaS business models, and the balance between user interfaces and code-driven environments.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Question: “Most Slept-On Adobe Product?”

(02:34 – 04:30)

• Host Inquiry: Benjamin asks Patrick for the one Adobe product that marketers most overlook but should be using.

a. Adobe Scan (Free Mobile App)

• Immediate Value: Patrick highlights Adobe Scan, describing it as “the best capture device for context on the planet” (03:08).
• Use Case Examples:
  • Instantly scan any document, whiteboard, or physical file during a conference or meeting, and convert it to an OCR-recognizable PDF, ready for AI context extraction.
  • Useful for quick documentation and feeding contextual data into prompts or marketing workflows.
• Quote:

  "We have a product called Adobe Scan... it's on your mobile phone, it's free, and you can basically take a picture of anything and it'll turn it into a basically an OCR recognizable PDF."
  — Patrick Brown [03:05]

b. Firefly for Creative Production

• Scalable Creative Output: Patrick also points to Firefly, Adobe’s AI-powered creative engine, as a game-changer for scale:
  • Enables programmatic generation and assembly of creative assets—ideal for campaigns requiring mass asset variations (e.g., personalized emails).
  • Integrates with business data for real-time, high-volume content creation.
• Impact:

  "If you're now sending 15 billion emails a year... you can programmatically in real time using data, go and create assets or assemble assets programmatically through this tool. It is an incredibly unbelievable way to get scaled production really quickly."
  — Patrick Brown [04:05]

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2. AI Integration in Marketing Workflows

• Trend Highlighted: There’s a prevalent, open-ended question in marketing: How do I best leverage AI for [x] task?
• Adobe’s Response: Both Scan and Firefly are positioned as practical, accessible answers for adding AI-driven context and creative horsepower into daily marketing operations.
• Memorable Moment:

  "Anytime we have a problem, it's like, how could I use AI for this? It's kind of an open question that I think we're all pontificating."
  — Patrick Brown [02:53]

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3. Shifts in SaaS Business Models & User Experience

(04:30 – 06:36)

• Salesforce Model Prompt: Benjamin references Salesforce’s shift to command-line tool access/coding and its impact on business model and billing.

• Adobe’s Viewpoint:

  • Adobe is experimenting with multiple access models—UI, code-first, integrated interfaces—listening to customer needs.
  • No single approach will prevail; businesses are at different places in their adoption.
  • The future of monetization and “toll gating” (usage-based billing/access) is still evolving.

• Quotes:

  "...you have to be able to offer your products in multiple ways, including whether it be through an MCP type engagement... At the end of the day you have tools and you've got ways that you can access them through MCPS to do things."
  — Patrick Brown [05:09]

  "I fundamentally believe that there will be an incredible amount of shift towards people generating their own software and creating personalized experience. But I also don't believe that the entire notion of user interface and the platform is going away."
  — Benjamin Shapiro [05:59]

  "There's going to be some equilibrium and some shift in between those two back and forth."
  — Benjamin Shapiro [06:24]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Patrick’s Product Picks:

  "I'm gonna cheat. I'm gonna give you two..."
  — Patrick Brown [02:48]

• Context for Marketers:

  "Think of it if you're at a conference, think if you're like, you see something interesting and you want or take a physical file that you see—you can use that to, to ask questions or load it in as context."
  — Patrick Brown [03:25]

• On SaaS Model Uncertainty:

  "The science isn't really settled on kind of where this goes... We are mostly partnering with our customers to figure out how do they want to operate and some of them are in different places on these things."
  — Patrick Brown [05:16]

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Important Timestamps

• [02:34] — “Most Slept-On Adobe Product?” question posed
• [03:05] — Adobe Scan detailed use case
• [04:05] — Firefly for creative production at scale
• [05:03] — Discussion shifts to SaaS/business model
• [05:59] — Benjamin’s perspective on the future of software platforms
• [06:44] — Podcast wraps, sponsor thank-yous and guest sign-off

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Summary Takeaways

• Adobe Scan is a free, mobile-native capture tool that turns real-world documents into AI-usable context and PDFs—especially handy for marketers on the go.
• Firefly is transforming creative production with programmatic, data-driven asset generation, enabling massive scale for enterprise campaigns.
• AI’s Role: Marketers are still discovering the “right” applications for AI—Adobe’s suite offers concrete, scalable examples.
• The future of SaaS will be multi-modal, offering both traditional UIs and programmatic access, while monetization models are still actively evolving.
• Balance Expected: Neither the interface nor code-driven experience will fully dominate; a mix is likely as the market settles.

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For marketers: The episode’s central message is clear—practical, lesser-known tools like Adobe Scan and scalable platforms like Firefly can drive both innovation and efficiency in daily workflows. Exploring such tools is key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing, AI-integrated marketing landscape.

Transcript

[Benjamin Shapiro]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

[Patrick Brown]

From advertising to software as a service to data across all of our programs

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate.

[Patrick Brown]

Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

24 to 36 hours. We're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action. Then it's just a matter of timing.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Today's interview is brought to you by Shift Paradigm Marketing today is buried in complexity. You've got the tech, you've got the tools, but moving the needle feels harder than ever. And the last thing us marketers need is another consultant pitching digital transformation. Enter Shift Paradigm Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands turn complexity into traction. Their work is insight led and strategically grounded, designed not to sell you a service or a piece of tech, but to actually solve real business challenges. What makes them different? Well, they're AI enabled but not AI dependent. They're human first, but plugged into the latest tools and models and the moments those models need to go through to prove themselves. They get techy without losing sight of the real person behind every click. And they don't just hand you a deck. They build the blueprints and stay to develop, deploy and run the engine. Growth isn't one size fits all. So stop settling for strategies that collect dust and start working with the team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with your audience. That's ShiftParadigm.com Last question for you. What is the one most slept on product at Adobe that everyone in marketing should be using?

[Patrick Brown]

Interesting. There's so many. Where do I pick?

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

That's my problem with Adobe in general is there's so much, there's so many. How do you figure out a vertical? How do you. How do you apply Adobe? It's so broad.

[Patrick Brown]

There is a. So I'm gonna. I'm cheat. I'm gonna give you Two, so we have a free product and so one of the things that you're. We're always struggling right now is like, how do I make sure that I'm leveraging AI? Like anytime we have a problem, it's like, how could I use AI for this? It's kind of an open question that I think we're all pontificating. One of those is like grabbing context so I can quickly load and build the best prompt possible. We have a product called Adobe Scan and what it does, it's on your mobile phone, it's free, and you can basically take a picture of anything and it'll turn it into a basically an OCR recognizable PDF. Like it's, it is the best capture device for context on the planet and you can use it to drop into anything to explain like questions that I've got. Think of it if you're at a conference, think if you're like, you see something interesting and you want or take a physical file that you see, you can use that to, to ask questions or like load it in as context. And that is something that we're even using now, like to take pictures of my notepad and putting it in as context. That's one. Another one that we've got that is, that is more on the scaled side. We have a product called Firefly for creative production and think of it as basically the engine that sits underneath Firefly that you can access programmatically to drive enormous scale in your business. So if you're now sending 15 billion emails a year and you can programmatically in real time using data, go and create assets or assemble assets programmatically through this tool. It is an incredibly unbelievable, it's an unbelievable way to get scaled production really quickly and work really differently through some of the stuff that, you know, all the evergreen assets that you're putting into the world. And that's something where we're seeing brands really lean into it.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

I said last question and then I realized there's something out I desperately have to ask you. A lot of attention was given to Salesforce changing their model and essentially allowing the entire Salesforce ecosystem to be called from a command line prompt. And they're changing their billing around it as well. How do you and Adobe think about the change in SaaS business models when it comes to billing or the usage of coding tools?

[Patrick Brown]

This is the, I'll say first that the science isn't really settled on kind of where this goes. I think it's. We're at the stage now where you have to be able to offer your products in multiple ways, including whether it be through an MCP type engagement, where an MCP can access and connect. At the end of the day you have tools and you've got ways that you can access them through MCPS to do things. And I think we're at the stage too where we're trying to figure out what do brands actually want in terms of being able to either access our systems and tools through those interfaces versus actually using the interfaces themselves. And I think companies are going to be at many, many different places. I also think that it'll be interesting to see how the monetization works down the road where we see toll gating through some of those MCP use or tool usage or what that looks like. And I think we are trying everything, but we are mostly partnering with our customers to figure out how do they want to operate and some of them are in different places on these things.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Yeah, I fundamentally believe that there will be an incredible amount of shift towards people generating their own software and creating personalized experience. But I also don't believe that the entire notion of user interface and the platform is going away. And it feels like everyone is very dramatically saying we're only going to be operating in Claude code or in Codex or hey, look, everybody's just going to go back to the back to the basics and start using the platforms. There's going to be some equilibrium and some shift in between those two back and forth.

[Patrick Brown]

Yep, I'm totally aligned with that.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, Patrick, I threw a ton at you. We bounced all over the place. I appreciate you coming on the podcast and and being my guest, and I hope to see you around the neighborhood sometime soon.

[Patrick Brown]

It was a pleasure. Thanks, Ben.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech podcast. Thanks to Patrick Brown, the SVP of Global Marketing at Adobe, for joining us. A special thanks to Shift Paradigm for sponsoring this podcast. Shift is an integrated team of experts who help enterprise brands bridge the gap between strategy data and customers. Human first, AI enabled and execution led. They build the blueprints, then stay to develop, deploy and run the engine you need. So stop settling for decks that collect dust and start working with a team that actually builds for you. Visit ShiftParadigm.com to see how they can help you connect meaningfully with your audience. If you'd like to get in touch with Patrick, you could find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com or you can visit his company's website, which is adobe.com and if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy. Foreign.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

Thanks for listening to the Martech podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything.com.