Procreate vs Adobe: AI Future Showdown
Key Points
- Procreate, the iPad art app, publicly rejects generative AI, emphasizing that creativity should be “made, not generated” and labeling AI as “theft” that strips humanity from art.
- Adobe, in contrast, has fully embraced generative AI, promoting it through high‑profile ads that claim AI can help ordinary users achieve extraordinary creative results quickly.
- The two companies are targeting different market segments: Procreate aims at professional artists who are skeptical of AI, while Adobe and Canva court both casual creators and commercial artists by offering AI‑enhanced workflow tools.
- The speaker plans to revisit this debate in six months to see whether Procreate’s anti‑AI stance can sustain a loyal artist base against Adobe’s AI‑driven growth strategy.
Full Transcript
# Procreate vs Adobe: AI Future Showdown **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCo0ASDWJPc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCo0ASDWJPc) **Duration:** 00:05:01 ## Summary - Procreate, the iPad art app, publicly rejects generative AI, emphasizing that creativity should be “made, not generated” and labeling AI as “theft” that strips humanity from art. - Adobe, in contrast, has fully embraced generative AI, promoting it through high‑profile ads that claim AI can help ordinary users achieve extraordinary creative results quickly. - The two companies are targeting different market segments: Procreate aims at professional artists who are skeptical of AI, while Adobe and Canva court both casual creators and commercial artists by offering AI‑enhanced workflow tools. - The speaker plans to revisit this debate in six months to see whether Procreate’s anti‑AI stance can sustain a loyal artist base against Adobe’s AI‑driven growth strategy. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCo0ASDWJPc&t=0s) **Procreate’s Anti‑AI Stance** - The speaker highlights Procreate’s declaration that creativity should be made, not generated, criticizing generative AI as “theft” and contrasting this philosophy with Adobe’s aggressive promotion of AI‑powered tools for mainstream creators. ## Full Transcript
I want you to bookmark this video and
come back to it in 6 months and I'll
tell you why the app procreate which is
an artwork app primarily for the iPad it
was designed as the iPad came out as a
way to take all the creativity you get
with pencil and paper with paint and
bring it into iPad in a way that
professional artists could use what
they've just said is they are not going
to do generative AI at all in fact they
have an entire website I'll link it
under the video here that says AI is not
our future creativity is made not
generated they are going you know to
town on this in fact I will just read
their first paragraph here generative AI
is ripping the humanity out of things
built on a foundation of theft the
technology is steering us toward a
Barren future we think machine learning
is a compelling technology with a lot of
Merit but the path generative AI is on
is wrong for us so there you go they are
in competition with Adobe which has
famously gone all in on generative Ai
and to the point where they now have uh
ads out on National Television
programming including I think on
football games in some cases where they
are showing what you can do easily with
generative Ai and they're specifically
pitching it as something that enables
Ordinary People to get extraordinary
creative results and bring their
Creative Vision to life really quickly
so for instance you can easily wipe
about an entire background you can
replace it with a generated backfill of
an entirely different scene you can have
yourself standing on the road by the
seaside in your vacation shot and you
can change it and instead of it just
being the ordinary Beach Town it can be
a special magical uh you know English
Kingdom that is right next to you and
right next to the beach I'm entirely
making that up but I'm sure it would do
that the point is Adobe has gone all in
on this and procreate has gone all in on
saying we are here for the artists we
are here for the artists who are
specifically nervous about Ai and we are
going to put our stake in the ground and
we are going to only serve them what I
want to know in six months and the
reason I'm telling you to save this
video is whether that Bett pays off
because these are very different markets
procreate is going after people who may
be AI skeptical who are artists who will
be more committed to them they think if
they can stick with their non- AI stance
whereas it is going after a market of
casual creators canvas doing this as
well and they're basically saying AI
helps you bring your Creative Vision to
life and we want to make sure that we
give you the tools so you can do that
and then because they're Adobe because
they're canva because they can serve
multiple personas with their scale
they're also serving professional
artists who are more focused on
Commercial Art application and they are
saying you can bring your commercial art
application to life more quickly more
efficiently if you use generative AI to
help you with your
workflow I think what's interesting to
me is I could see both of those
companies thriving I think the space
we're in is wide enough and diverse
enough that you will have a contingent
of serious artists who do not want
anything that they build or touch to be
touched by AI procreate might serve them
well I also think you're going to see a
whole lot of professional artists who
are making work for higher who will need
generative AI to keep Pace as we
continue to drive higher and higher
expectations for the quality of work at
a particular cost because Underneath It
All generative AI is changing the
expected yield of our work and so we're
going to continue to see more
expectations for more highquality work
at a particular cost and you're going to
end up needing generative AI in your
workflows to compete adobe's making that
bet they're also making that market they
stand to profit from it and they stand
to expand that market by bringing in
these casual creators with these like
easy to use Easy to advertise put it on
football games generative AI
features so I think there's room for
both I do think that the bigger Market
is where Adobe is sitting the bigger
Market is where canva is sitting and I
think procreate has decided they're just
not going to play in that market and
they're going to serve professional
artists and that's big enough for them
and that's what they're going to do I
will be curious if we come back in six
months if their stance changes or if
they are going to be considered one of
the Vanguard of apps that are
deliberately anti- AI there will be some
and I'm really curious to see sort of
where they end up so you tell me what do
you think is procreate going to stick
with this uh no AI stance uh and if they
do is it going to end up making sense
for them are they going to end up coming
back uh and regretting it or coming back
and saying No this was the right call
for us uh and for the customers that
we're serving let me know in the
comments