Design software leader Adobe has introduced AI Assistant (beta), a conversational engine in Reader and Acrobat to generate summaries and insights from long documents. Moreover, the AI can answer questions and format information for sharing in emails, reports and presentations. AI Assistant is bringing generative AI to unlocking new value from approximately 3 trillion PDFs in the world.

The company’s latest AI tool is built on the same models behind Acrobat Liquid Mode, which supports responsive reading experiences for PDFs on mobile. These proprietary models provide an understanding of PDF structure and content, enhancing quality and reliability in AI Assistant outputs.  

“Generative AI offers the promise of more intelligent document experiences by transforming the information inside PDFs into actionable knowledge and professional-looking content,” said Abhigyan Modi, senior vice president of Document Cloud.

“PDF is the de facto standard for the world’s most important documents, and the capabilities introduced today are just the beginning of the value AI Assistant will deliver through Reader and Acrobat applications and services,” Modi added.  

Acrobat Individual, Pro and Teams customers and Acrobat Pro trialists can use the AI Assistant beta to work more productively, with features coming to Reader over the coming days and weeks. They will have access to capabilities through a new add-on subscription plan when AI Assistant is out of beta.

Until then, the AI Assistant features are available in beta for Acrobat Standard and Pro Individual and Teams subscription plans on desktop and web in English, with features coming to Reader desktop customers in English over the next few weeks — other languages to follow. A private beta is available for enterprise customers.  

The tool has guardrails so all customers can use the features. Enterprise-grade security and information governance are available for large business customers. AI Assistant is developed in alignment with Adobe’s AI Ethics processes. 

With AI Assistant in Reader and Acrobat, Adobe takes an LLM-agnostic approach, selecting best-in-class technologies that address a range of customer use cases. Adobe prohibits third-party LLMs from training on Adobe customer data. 

Moving forward, Adobe’s AI Assistant roadmap includes providing insights across diverse documents. The company’s AI will facilitate authoring, editing, and formatting in Acrobat, streamlining first drafts, copy editing, and content design. The AI will also soon leverage Firefly, Adobe Express, and more features.