Who Uses Adobe in Q3 2025: User Segments and AI-Driven Growth Report
🚀 Explore Adobe's diverse user segments in Q3 2025, showcasing AI-driven expansion across enterprises, agencies, public sector, and education! 📊✨
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Who Uses Adobe: A Comparative User-Segment Report (Q3 2025)
Adobe’s user base spans large enterprises and global brands, marketing and advertising agencies, public sector institutions, and education. Adoption is anchored by Creative Cloud, Express, Acrobat (including the AI Assistant), Firefly, GenStudio, and Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) with its AI Assistant.
Momentum indicators:
- 14,000+ organizations added to Express in Q3
- 70% AI Assistant use among eligible AEP customers
- Firefly MAU +30% QoQ
These suggest broad-based, AI-led expansion across segments.
Adobe User Landscape: Segments and Named Customers
Enterprises & Global Brands
Named: Disney, FedEx, Home Depot, Meta, MetLife, Ulta, Volkswagen, Allegis Group, DSV, Intuit, KKR, Lloyds Bank, Lockheed Martin, Vivendi, Amgen, Australia Post, Dick’s Sporting Goods.
What they use: Creative Cloud, Express, Firefly, GenStudio for content production; Acrobat + AI Assistant for document workflows; AEP + AI Assistant for data-driven experiences.
Global Marketing & Advertising Agencies
Named: Dentsu (Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Tag, Merkle); Stagwell.
What they use: Creative Cloud and Express within GenStudio for scaled creative operations; AEP for customer data activation and personalization.
Notable scale: Enterprise-wide rollout across ~68,000 employees at a global marketing group, with standardized workflows across multiple agency brands.
Public Sector
Named: Ontario (Provincial Government), Virginia State Government; California partnership delivering AI-enabled Express, Acrobat AI Assistant, and Firefly.
What they use: Acrobat and AI Assistant for document-heavy workflows; Express and Firefly to modernize content and communication; AEP for constituent engagement and data governance.
Education (K–12 & Higher Ed)
Characteristics: Broad access for students, faculty, and staff; strong adoption of Express and Acrobat for learning content, collaboration, and paperwork.
What they use: Express for multimodal creation; Acrobat + AI Assistant for reading, summarizing, and authoring support; Firefly for safe, commercially viable generative content.
Internal & Cross-Enterprise Rollouts
Pattern: Large organizations standardizing on Adobe to unify creative-to-document workflows and accelerate go-to-market content, often tying creative assets to downstream experience activation via AEP.
Comparative View of Who Uses What
Segment | Representative Organizations | Primary Adobe Products in Use | Scale/Adoption Indicators | Core Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Enterprises & Global Brands | Disney, FedEx, Home Depot, Meta, MetLife, Ulta, Volkswagen, Allegis Group, DSV, Intuit, KKR, Lloyds Bank, Lockheed Martin, Vivendi, Amgen, Australia Post, Dick’s Sporting Goods | Creative Cloud, Express, Firefly, GenStudio; Acrobat + AI Assistant; AEP + AI Assistant | AI-influenced ARR > $5B suggests broad enterprise uptake; Firefly MAU +30% QoQ | Faster content velocity; brand governance at scale; AI-assisted document productivity; data-driven personalization |
Global Marketing Agencies | Dentsu (Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Tag, Merkle), Stagwell | Creative Cloud + Express in GenStudio; AEP + AI Assistant | Large-scale rollout (~68,000 employees) across multiple brands | Network-wide creative standardization; rapid asset reuse; integrated creative-to-activation workflows |
Public Sector | Ontario Provincial Government, Virginia State Government; California partnership | Acrobat + AI Assistant; Express; Firefly; AEP (select) | State-level partnerships; strong Acrobat/Express usage in government | Digital document modernization; accessible content creation; compliant data use |
Education | State of California (partnership scope includes education), institutions serving students/faculty/staff | Express; Acrobat + AI Assistant; Firefly | Strong Express/Acrobat usage in education | Creative learning at scale; AI-assisted reading/writing; safe generative content |
Internal/Cross-Enterprise Programs | Large organizations standardizing tools across departments | Creative Cloud Pro; Express; Acrobat Studio (PDF Spaces + AI Assistant + Express); AEP | Growth in Creative Cloud Pro; launch of Acrobat Studio | Unified toolchain from documents to creative; AI-first workflows |
Product Adoption Signals by Segment
Segment-by-Segment Analysis
Enterprises & Global Brands
Why Adobe: Brand-safe, large-scale content production and governance; measurable personalization; AI to compress content and document cycle times.
How they use it:
- Creative Cloud + GenStudio + Express for production pipelines
- Firefly for compliant, generative scaling
- Acrobat + AI Assistant to streamline documentation
- AEP + AI Assistant to unify data and automate insights
Outcome: Faster campaign velocity, consistent brand execution, improved marketing ROI.
Global Marketing Agencies
Why Adobe: Industrialize creative operations across brands and markets; interoperability across studios and accounts.
How they use it:
- Standardized creative stack (Creative Cloud + Express in GenStudio)
- AEP to connect creative with audience strategy
Outcome: Workflow consistency, talent productivity, tighter creative-to-media loop.
Public Sector
Why Adobe: Modernize services, reduce manual document burden, broaden accessibility.
How they use it:
- Acrobat + AI Assistant for summarization, drafting, collaboration
- Express and Firefly for public communications
- Select AEP usage for constituent experience
Outcome: Faster service delivery, better citizen communications, reduced paperwork friction.
Education
Why Adobe: Democratize creative tools; support AI-assisted literacy and creation with safe models.
How they use it:
- Express for classroom projects
- Acrobat + AI Assistant for studying and review
- Firefly for safe generative exploration
Outcome: Scaled creative literacy and productivity with accessible, AI-enabled workflows.
Internal/Cross-Enterprise Rollouts
Why Adobe: Consolidate toolchains, enable cross-team collaboration, embed AI in daily work.
How they use it:
- Creative Cloud Pro and Express for standardization
- Acrobat Studio for document/AI/design integration
- AEP for strategic data coordination
Outcome: Unified governance, lower tool fragmentation, measurable productivity uplifts.
Comparative Insights: Similarities and Differences
Common threads:
- AI as the adoption catalyst across all segments (content generation, summarization, assistance)
- Desire for safe, commercially usable generative outputs (Firefly) and trusted document intelligence (Acrobat AI Assistant)
- Need to connect creative work with activation and measurement (GenStudio and AEP)
Key differences:
- Enterprises/agencies: scale, brand governance, data activation
- Public sector/education: accessibility, document modernization, safe AI
- Agencies: cross-brand standardization, speed-to-asset
- Enterprises: end-to-end integration from creative to customer experience
- Education: broad enablement and learning outcomes, lighter governance
Case Snapshots
Implications for Adobe’s Go-To-Market and Product Strategy
- Double down on AI co-pilots across creation, documents, and data activation, given strong uptake (70% AEP AI Assistant use among eligible customers)
- Package value for large networks and enterprises (e.g., Acrobat Studio, Creative Cloud Pro, GenStudio) to encourage standardized, cross-brand rollouts
- Continue education and public-sector partnerships where Express/Acrobat adoption is strong and generative safety is paramount
- Leverage Firefly growth to drive upsell from Express and Creative Cloud into GenStudio and AEP-driven activation
Key Takeaways
- Who uses Adobe: Large enterprises and global brands; marketing and advertising agencies; public sector institutions; educational organizations; and large internal rollouts within customer organizations.
- What they use: A connected stack—Creative Cloud, Express, Firefly, GenStudio, Acrobat + AI Assistant (and Acrobat Studio), and AEP + AI Assistant.
- Why they use it: To scale content creation safely, modernize document workflows, and connect creative output to data-driven customer experiences.
- Adoption is accelerating:
- Express added 14,000+ organizations in Q3 (4x YoY QoQ growth)
- Firefly MAU rose 30% QoQ
- 70% of eligible AEP customers use AI Assistant
- AI-influenced ARR surpassed $5B
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