Adobe, Canva’s Affinity, Figma, Microsoft, and a case for creative open market

This week, when Apple updated Pixelmator Pro and Photomator apps headlines with new icons, it seemed to miss a tune. It’s been a year since Apple acquired the designing and photo editing apps respectively, but the continuity gives a sense of dullness as in parallel, tech companies including Adobe, Canva and Figma have made substantive moves to find harmony between humans that use creative apps, and the artificial intelligence (AI) layer that is supposed to be a reinforcement. Traditional subscription models too, may be under threat.

Affinity’s new free app consolidates Vector, Pixel, Layout design tools as well as advanced non-destructive image editing. (Official image)

There seems to be an insistence, or at least a growing sense of realism, that AI cannot really replace humans in certain workflows. “While technology will amplify human ingenuity and unlock new possibilities, it’s one thing you can never replicate,” says Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe, at the company’s MAX keynote. He believes AI can help humans with the four key pillars — ideation, creation, production and delivery — in the AI era.

In a conversation with HT, Louise Pentland, the chief legal officer and executive vice president for Legal and Government Relations at Adobe, doubled down on this positioning, saying “the future of AI must still have a human author at its core”.

“AI is a tool in a toolbox, just like an artist has a paint kit. AI can be leveraged to create, but it will not be the creation. The creation is always going to be human-driven,” she explains.

Adobe’s key focus this year revolved around three key elements. Adobe’s own Firefly models, adding partner models including those from OpenAI and Google for customers to access, as well as customisable models that will help creatives and businesses find an AI with focused relevance.

“We are moving from the information era, to the imagination era,” says Melanie Perkins, co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva. The platform’s latest updates are underlined by a triple layer structure building with the platform that includes the world’s biggest content library as well as an app ecosystem, Canva AI as a creative partner, and a Visual Suite that includes Docs, Photo Editor, as well as as a vastly updated video editing toolkit.

In a conversation with HT, Liam Fisher, who is Head of Pro Design Marketing at Canva had earlier said, “Human creativity remains vital, and that’s the most important part of this. Design and visual work needs that human taste, it needs that vision to innovate. So when this isn’t really about a threat or a replacement, what this is about is combining human creativity with AI to create new opportunities.”

While Adobe and Canva were trading punches again, collaborative interface design tool Figma acquired Tel Aviv based startup Weavy. Rather than generating and editing images and videos with one-off prompts, Figma will be able to offer to users Weavy’s create visual workflows for comparing and manipulating options generated by different AI models.

Affinity, Microsoft, Meta: Democratising AI and toolkits

While this would be good news for users of more focused creative tools, whether free or paid subscribers, professional users as well as the casual demographic has more options to work with too.

British company Affinity, acquired by Canva in 2024, may well have delivered a seismic shift to the traditional subscription models, often quite expensive, that have defined creative tools. Their new app called Affinity is consolidating Vector, Pixel, Layout design tools as well as advanced non-destructive image editing — and is free to download and use.

Ashley Hewson, CEO of Affinity, hopes this will “change the game for creative professionals forever”. In one fine swoop, Affinity’s free app may find relevance with users of Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, as well as CorelDraw and Sketch platforms. It approach is also an antidote to a growing AI-focused industry-wide trend, and gives professionals a cleaner apparatus to work with.

The optional Canva AI functionality will require a Pro subscription since the AI credit pool is the same, but no other functionality is locked on the free version. Previously, each of Affinity’s powerful apps were a $70 one-time purchase.

Microsoft has rolled out creative tools for millions of Windows PCs. This includes Cocreator in Paint, video editing tool Clipchamp and the Relight feature in Photos. The positioning of simplicity is clear.

“Traditional photo editors, even powerful ones like Photoshop, require significant expertise — and often third-party plugins — to approximate this control. Windows Photos’ integration democratises relighting, making it possible for anyone with a Copilot+ PC to create studio-quality edits in seconds,” writes Microsoft, in a learning centre post.

Last month, Google Photos added Gemini-inspired photo to video generative skills on Android devices. It is conversational, where a user describes the edits they’d like in an image. This week, Meta updated its video editing app Edits, with a number of new tools in the arsenal. These include 28 new video effects as well as customised animations.