Recently IT Brief had the opportunity to sit down with Mala Sharma, Adobe's VP of Creative Cloud Product, Marketing and Community.
We discussed the future of the Creative Cloud (CC), AI and how Adobe aims to enable creativity in all industries.
To start off with can you tell me what you're most excited about in terms of Creative Cloud?
Well, it's hard to have favourites when you sort of overlook the entire business. But I think the piece of news that's most exciting is that we are truly fulfilling on our mission of enabling creativity for all.
It's a mission we started out with before we announced the cloud six years ago, and the promise of Photoshop on the iPad, making it accessible, not just as it is but on the iPad as well, is truly building on that mission.
Photoshop is our 'crown jewel' in a sense and it's such a big part of pop culture so this is probably the most exciting announcement.
Another piece of news a lot of people are excited about is Adobe Rush. These days, people are not just taking photos, but are taking videos just as much, in fact, more so. Some age groups, like kids, are just taking videos, that's how they engage with the world.
They want to be YouTubers, and they don't know how to edit a video. Rush is a great starting point to enable that kind of creativity in children, but more than that it can enable the same kind of creativity in adults too.
So what led to the decision that the iPad would be the first mobile device to get Photoshop and are there plans to expand the range of devices with access to it soon?
Yeah, absolutely. So the model that we've built this off was to really bring the power of Lightroom wherever you are. And the intention is to do that across all of our applications over time.
The iPad is the first device, but over time, you'll see us bring Photoshop to other devices. That's part of our strategy and you'll see that play out. And that will be true for any app in the future to go down that direction.
A lot of customers, especially creators, weigh the pros tend to be on the Mac and we see a lot of creation in terms of the power that's available to them. Even without hardened mobile apps, like Photoshop or sketch, there are a lot of amazing pieces of work being created on the iPad already. So it was a natural first for us.
How do you think Rush will impact the creative community as a whole?
I think Rush will be a game changer for anyone who wants to tell a story that's compelling. And I think that's extremely relevant to students and young creators because all of the heroes and heroines are on YouTube.
At the same time, I think it is so extremely valuable for professionals as well. A lot of graphic designers are being asked to create campaigns that are across channels and Rush makes it super accessible for them to use video as a format.
Another field where it will be a valuable tool is for news reporters. They could be capturing and creating on the go, so to speak. And ultimately, even professionals who are creating for Hollywood could use it because there's a compatibility between Rush and Premiere Pro.
There's also interest from our Enterprise customers who can now use this tool to quickly turn around engaging experiences for their customers.
How can businesses best use utilize these innovations and Creative Cloud?
There are two answers here. One is in the context of the creative professional themselves. Every brand has creative pros. And I think they can benefit from a couple of things. One is delivering incredibly delightful experiences for their customers faster.
As you heard, there's a lot of capabilities we've built in that are powered by Sensei and they're all about getting your work done faster. We introduced Sensei a couple years ago as a framework that was fairly conceptual. And here we are, a couple of years later, with complete capabilities in these products that help you get work done faster.
I think the second dimension for enterprises is in what experiences they can deliver for their customers. So by making all these apps more accessible, their own design teams can now create multi-channel experiences. I can imagine their social media marketers using rush, for example, to create quick social campaigns that they could put out there.
