Adobe’s Oriol Nieto loaded up a short video with a handful of scenes and a voice-over, but no sound effects. The AI model analyzed the video and broke it down into scenes, applying emotional tags and a description of each scene. Then, the sound effects came. The AI model picked up on a scene with an alarm clock, for instance, and automatically created a sound effect. It identified a scene where the main character (an octopus, in this case) was driving a car, and it added a sound effect of a door closing.
It wasn’t perfect. The alarm sound wasn’t realistic, and in a scene where two characters were hugging, the AI model added an unnatural rustling of clothes that didn’t work. Instead of manually editing, Adobe used a conversational interface (like ChatGPT) to describe changes. In the car scene, there was no ambient sound from the car. Rather than manually selecting the scene, Adobe used the conversational interface and asked the AI model to add a car sound effect to the scene. It successfully found the scene, generated the sound effect, and placed it perfectly.
These experimental features aren’t available, but they usually work their way into Adobe’s suite. For instance, Harmonize, a feature in Photoshop that automatically places assets with accurate color and lighting in a scene, was shown at Sneaks last year. Now, it’s in Photoshop. Expect them to pop up sometime in 2026.
Adobe’s announcement comes mere months after video game voice actors ended a nearly year-long strike to secure protections around AI—companies are required to get consent and provide disclosure agreements when game developers want to recreate a voice actor’s voice or likeness through AI. Voice actors have been bracing for the impact AI will have on the business for some time now, and Adobe’s new features, even if they’re not generating a voice-over from scratch, are yet another marker of the shift AI is forcing on the creative industry.
