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

SegmentRepresentative OrganizationsPrimary Adobe Products in UseScale/Adoption IndicatorsCore Outcomes
Enterprises & Global BrandsDisney, FedEx, Home Depot, Meta, MetLife, Ulta, Volkswagen, Allegis Group, DSV, Intuit, KKR, Lloyds Bank, Lockheed Martin, Vivendi, Amgen, Australia Post, Dick’s Sporting GoodsCreative Cloud, Express, Firefly, GenStudio; Acrobat + AI Assistant; AEP + AI AssistantAI-influenced ARR > $5B suggests broad enterprise uptake; Firefly MAU +30% QoQFaster content velocity; brand governance at scale; AI-assisted document productivity; data-driven personalization
Global Marketing AgenciesDentsu (Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Tag, Merkle), StagwellCreative Cloud + Express in GenStudio; AEP + AI AssistantLarge-scale rollout (~68,000 employees) across multiple brandsNetwork-wide creative standardization; rapid asset reuse; integrated creative-to-activation workflows
Public SectorOntario Provincial Government, Virginia State Government; California partnershipAcrobat + AI Assistant; Express; Firefly; AEP (select)State-level partnerships; strong Acrobat/Express usage in governmentDigital document modernization; accessible content creation; compliant data use
EducationState of California (partnership scope includes education), institutions serving students/faculty/staffExpress; Acrobat + AI Assistant; FireflyStrong Express/Acrobat usage in educationCreative learning at scale; AI-assisted reading/writing; safe generative content
Internal/Cross-Enterprise ProgramsLarge organizations standardizing tools across departmentsCreative Cloud Pro; Express; Acrobat Studio (PDF Spaces + AI Assistant + Express); AEPGrowth in Creative Cloud Pro; launch of Acrobat StudioUnified toolchain from documents to creative; AI-first workflows

Product Adoption Signals by Segment

Express

  • 14,000+ organizations added in Q3
  • 4x QoQ growth vs. a year ago
  • Pull strongest in education and marketing-centric enterprises
  • Accelerates social, short-form, and campaign content

Acrobat, Acrobat AI Assistant & Studio

  • Acrobat Studio launched (PDF Spaces + AI Assistant + Express)
  • Resonant in public sector, education, and enterprise back-office
  • Streamlines heavy document workloads

Firefly & GenStudio

  • Firefly App MAU up 30% QoQ
  • Safe, commercially viable generative content for brands
  • Embedded in Creative Cloud and GenStudio for production-scale creation

Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) + AI Assistant

  • 70% of eligible AEP customers leverage AI Assistant
  • Strong enterprise and agency adoption for data activation and personalization

AI-led Growth

  • AI-first and AI-infused products driving high ARR
  • AI-influenced ARR surpassed $5B, signaling cross-segment monetization

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

Global Marketing Group Rollout

~68,000 employees across agency brands (Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Tag, Merkle) standardize on Creative Cloud and share via Express within GenStudio—elevating reuse and governance while accelerating content throughput.

State-Level Education Partnership (California)

Provisioning AI-enabled Express, Acrobat AI Assistant, and Firefly to students, faculty, and staff—expanding access to creative and document AI while maintaining safety and compliance.

Public Sector Modernization

Governments such as Ontario and Virginia scale Acrobat and Express to streamline documentation and improve constituent communications.

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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