Adobe MAX: AI object removal reaches Photoshop, Premiere and Lightroom as Google tie-up deepens

Adobe used its MAX event to roll out a wave of Firefly-powered editing features across its Creative Cloud apps, headlined by generative object removal arriving in Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere. In a parallel announcement, the company said it is expanding its partnership with Google, placing Adobe's tools inside Gmail, Drive, Gemini and Google Search while bringing Google's AI models into Adobe's software.

Generative removal comes to the video timeline

According to The Verge, the flagship Premiere feature is a Generative Remove tool, launching in beta, that operates directly on the editing timeline. Editors mask and track an object — a stray boom mic or clutter behind a subject, for instance — click Remove, and the software reconstructs the area while the surrounding footage stays untouched. The Verge notes the capability echoes Project Frame Forward, an experimental demo shown in Adobe's Sneaks showcase last year.

Premiere is also gaining sound editing tools intended to tidy up messy recordings and split a mix into separate tracks for dialogue, music, ambience and sound effects. Two earlier additions, the Generative Media tool and the Color Mode color-editing experience that debuted in beta in April, are now generally available.

Photoshop and Lightroom sharpen their retouching

Photoshop's existing Remove Tool has been updated to better reconstruct the elements that travel with an erased object, such as reflections, shadows and footprints. Two new features join it: Quick Compare, a split-screen slider for reviewing edits against the original without digging through layers, and Relight, which lets users place new light sources around a canvas and tune their hue and brightness to rework an image's lighting.

On the Lightroom side, the blemish-removal tool previously limited to mobile is coming to the desktop app, bringing single-tap skin retouching there. A new Open Eyes feature enters public beta, using a reference photo of the subject pulled from the user's image library to substitute convincing open eyes when someone blinks in a shot.

Firefly grows beyond single edits

Adobe's Firefly platform is expanding alongside the app updates. Quick Actions, prebuilt workflows that automate specific jobs such as producing video thumbnails and product ads, are now generally available.

Two new experiences are launching in beta: Firefly Design, a combined workspace spanning illustration, image editing, animation, 3D and print, and Firefly Graph, which Adobe positions as a way to create reusable multi-step workflows — a concept The Verge compares to Figma's Weave platform. A Firefly Builder tool for prototyping websites and apps has entered private beta, which The Verge notes bears similarities to Figma Make.

Adobe and Google get closer

In an announcement on Google's AI blog, the two companies said the partnership runs in both directions: Adobe's creative and productivity tools will surface inside Google's products, and Google's frontier AI models will be brought into Adobe's apps.

For document work, a direct pathway from Google Drive and Gmail into Adobe Acrobat is on the way, including an "Edit with" entry point in file previews. Adobe is expanding its connectors in Gemini and Gemini Enterprise with Acrobat and additional creative tools, and will bring its creative tools to AI Mode in Google Search. Business customers will get access to Adobe's CX Enterprise Coworker agent inside Gemini Enterprise, an assistant that can design graphics, handle PDFs and launch marketing campaigns from within the same interface.

The companies' research arms are involved too. Adobe and Google DeepMind will explore new editing capabilities for creative professionals, starting with an image model for Photoshop that Google says could allow edits to happen in near real time.

Why it matters

Generative object removal has moved quickly from research demo to expected feature, and Adobe is now shipping it across its three most widely used creative apps. For video editors in particular, timeline-native removal could replace tedious manual masking or even reshoots when equipment or bystanders intrude on a frame.

The Google integration may be the larger strategic signal. By embedding Acrobat and creative tools into Gmail, Drive, Search and Gemini, Adobe gains distribution in the places people already work, while Google's models — and DeepMind's work on faster image editing — gain a foothold inside professional creative software. Combined with Firefly Graph and Firefly Builder, which mirror recent moves by Figma, the announcements show Adobe pushing AI into not just individual edits but entire design and production workflows.