Creativity with AI in Education 2025 Report

I attended the Adobe Chicago Generation AI event this week. Here are some brief notes:

Digital Literacy & Access: University-Wide & Classroom Perspectives

I was particularly impressed by the presentations from Professors Justin Hodgson (Indiana University) and Sheneese Thompson (Howard University), who shared valuable insights on digital literacy initiatives. They discussed both university-wide strategies and classroom-specific approaches for expanding access to Adobe tools. Their practical examples of how these tools can be integrated into diverse educational environments were especially helpful.

• Justin spoke about the Digital Gardener Initiative and shared this resource.
• Sheneese presented using this resource (So I Have Adobe, Now What?) as her presentation materials.

Creativity with AI in Education: 2025 Report

Brian Johnsrud from Adobe delivered a detailed presentation on the 2025 Report focusing on creativity with AI in education.

• Brian shared his report to the web: Adobe AI in Education Report

Future Forward: Reimagining Career Readiness for the Next Generation

Joshua Meredith and Clark Edwards (both from Deloitte) presented on “Future Forward: Reimagining Career Readiness for the Next Generation.” Their analysis of emerging workforce trends recommended that educational institutions need to adapt to prepare students for success in an AI-transformed job market.

• Slides were not shared, but the Deloitte report (Preparing students for an AI-driven workforce and the future of work) was shared.

For Good: Navigating Wicked Problems with Adobe Express and Acrobat AI Assistant

Shauna Chung led a demonstration of Adobe Express and Acrobat AI Assistant, with a hand-on workshop (For Good: Navigating Wicked Problems). Two tools were highlighted as part of the session:

• AI Assistant in Adobe Acrobat: This tool operates as a NotebookLM competitor (without the podcasts). The value proposition Adobe offers here is that your documents are retain their privacy and are not used for training. According to Adobe, OpenAI’s GPT models power the backend. In quick tests, it worked well for me. However, the prompt window had a character limit of about 500 characters. I imagine that the context window for AI Assistant is not as large as NotebookLM’s.
• Adobe Express: I see tacit admission from Adobe that the Creative Cloud tools are intimidating to new users, with a UX that is designed for established users. Adobe Express is positioned as the platform for new and occasional users. The generative AI tools are positioned as more ethical than the competition.

The organizers provided six-months free access to the tools.

Overall, I found the sessions to be very helpful. I hope future events have a dedicated workshop-only option for faculty and staff getting up-to-speed with the tools.