IBM's adoption of Adobe AI boosts marketing efficiency

IBM announced on Wednesday that its initial trials of Adobe's generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have led to notable enhancements in productivity.

Using Adobe's innovative tools, capable of crafting images from text-based prompts, IBM has focused on optimising marketing campaigns. This marks an early stage in Adobe's endeavour to develop AI systems trained on its proprietary data, with built-in legal protections against potential lawsuits — a strategy aimed at attracting large enterprises.

Billy Seabrook, the global chief design officer for IBM's consulting division, revealed that the 1,600 designers within his unit leveraged Adobe's tools to swiftly generate ideas and produce diverse variants tailored for various segments of marketing campaigns.

Seabrook told Reuters, "What typically would take us two weeks for an end-to-end cycle, we've gotten down to two days."

IBM anticipates a tenfold increase in designer productivity overall, enabling them to dedicate more time to brainstorming and storyboarding rather than crafting minor design iterations.

In the short term, the immediate impact on employment within the design industry is expected to involve existing teams handling increased workloads. Seabrook explained: "There's typically a rule of prioritisation of what big bets you are going to go after and what stuff you're going to put towards a problem. Theoretically, you're opening up more headroom to focus on some of those other problems."

However, the long-term implications for employment remain uncertain. Seabrook highlighted recent IBM survey findings indicating that most business leaders consider designers more vital than ever. He emphasised the crucial role of designers in overseeing the output of generative AI, providing empathy, and refining the AI's performance.

Nevertheless, Seabrook acknowledged that while business leaders recognise the increasing importance of designers, there is a consensus that fewer jobs may be available in the future. IBM is closely monitoring these developments to gauge their impact.