Is Adobe quietly becoming the operating system of the agentic web?

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is evolving from a software vendor into a foundational infrastructure layer for the agentic internet. Its FY2025 results, which featured $23.77 billion in revenue and record Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $25.20 billion, confirm that Adobe is not just scaling product sales—it is embedding itself into the AI-powered content, productivity, and marketing ecosystems that define how the agentic web will function.

Behind the quarterly numbers is a deeper strategic shift: Adobe is now positioning its AI-native platforms—notably Firefly, Acrobat AI Assistant, and Brand Concierge—as protocol-level tools for intent fulfillment across creative, business, and enterprise environments. The company is building a vertically integrated stack that blends proprietary models, document intelligence, and enterprise-grade personalization. In doing so, Adobe may be laying the groundwork to become the default interface layer for content generation, document consumption, and brand orchestration in an AI-mediated internet.

How Adobe is transforming from a creative suite to an agentic ecosystem infrastructure

Adobe’s pivot into the agentic web is rooted in its modularization of core application capabilities into generative and conversational APIs. With its Model Context Protocol (MCP), the company is decoupling features from full-stack applications and enabling them to be accessed in platforms like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and potentially any other large language model interface.

This approach is already visible in Acrobat, Photoshop, and Express. Users can invoke Adobe’s capabilities inside third-party environments without needing to launch a standalone Adobe app. Editing a PDF, refining an image, or generating an infographic can now occur within the context of a conversation. That’s a fundamental shift from Adobe’s historical model of locking functionality within Creative Cloud or Document Cloud.

At the same time, Firefly has evolved from a standalone generative model into a federated platform of over 25 models—including OpenAI, Google Gemini, ElevenLabs, and Topaz Labs. By enabling multi-model orchestration within a single user interface and charging based on generative credit consumption, Adobe is turning creativity itself into a platform utility—blended seamlessly across both direct manipulation and conversational endpoints.

This model-context duality is what makes Adobe particularly well suited to act as an operating layer for the agentic web. While many competitors focus on vertical applications (like Canva, Figma, or Notion), Adobe is building horizontal infrastructure that can power AI experiences at scale—whether through proprietary interfaces or partner channels.

Why Adobe’s ARR structure gives it leverage in agentic web economics

Adobe exited FY2025 with $25.20 billion in ARR and expects to grow that by over 10 percent in FY2026. More than one-third of that ARR is now AI-influenced. In practical terms, that means its revenue is increasingly tied not to static licenses, but to the usage and adoption of AI-native experiences—like Firefly generation, Acrobat AI document comprehension, or Brand Concierge orchestration.

The company’s new customer group-based reporting reflects this transition. Rather than emphasizing legacy product segments, Adobe now categorizes revenue by Business Professionals & Consumers and Creative & Marketing Professionals. These personas map directly to how AI agents will interact with users—through documents, content workflows, or creative outputs.

Adobe’s monetization model is also evolving to match this structure. Firefly now uses generative credits that vary based on model type and media complexity. Acrobat Studio bundles comprehension and generation in one SKU. Adobe Express offers post-template creation. In each case, Adobe is steering users from transactional usage to recurring, credit-based workflows, akin to API platform pricing.

This shift positions Adobe well for the agentic web, where content is generated on demand, usage is fragmented across channels, and value accrues to infrastructure providers that can orchestrate interactions across multiple surfaces.

How Adobe is redefining marketing infrastructure with agentic orchestration tools

On the enterprise side, Adobe is building an entire stack for agentic brand orchestration. Brand Concierge, Adobe’s newest AI-first tool, enables companies to deploy configurable agents that guide consumers from exploration to purchase. Powered by Adobe Experience Platform and its Agent Orchestrator, these agents blend personalization, content intelligence, and conversational UX into a single flow.

This is particularly relevant as the web transitions from keyword-based search to LLM-driven discovery. Adobe’s acquisition of Semrush Holdings for $1.9 billion—expected to close in the first half of FY2026—cements its ambition to dominate generative engine optimization (GEO). The acquisition gives Adobe access to proprietary data on how brands are surfaced across AI models, search engines, and agentic browsers.

Combined with Adobe Experience Manager, GenStudio, and Firefly Foundry, Adobe is enabling enterprises to manage the entire content supply chain—from creative ideation to customer activation. And importantly, it is doing so in a way that integrates directly into the agentic interfaces that increasingly define digital engagement.

Unlike traditional marketing clouds, which optimize static campaigns, Adobe’s stack is designed to operate dynamically, in response to real-time intent. That makes it uniquely positioned to power brand visibility, discovery, and conversion in an LLM-first world.

Why the agentic web is the natural terrain for Adobe’s ecosystem model

The broader shift toward agentic computing plays directly to Adobe’s strengths. Agentic systems rely on models that take user goals and autonomously execute actions across APIs and content repositories. For such systems to work, they need access to reliable, expressive, and controllable content endpoints.

Adobe already controls many of these endpoints—design tools, video editors, PDF engines, digital asset managers, and campaign orchestration platforms. By opening them up via MCP and embedding AI models natively, Adobe is positioning its ecosystem as the agent’s toolkit.

This mirrors what operating systems once did for local computing—offering a standardized way to access, modify, and render content. In this analogy, Adobe is not trying to be the browser, the assistant, or the model. It is trying to be the layer that makes those agents capable of fulfilling visual, textual, and experiential tasks with precision and control.

That makes Adobe less like a creative suite and more like a runtime for content intent. It also differentiates the company from competitors like Canva, which focuses on user-friendly design, or Figma, which concentrates on collaboration. Adobe is going after orchestration at scale—something that few companies outside of enterprise cloud hyperscalers are equipped to do.

Can Adobe’s model sustain long-term leadership in an AI-native web?

Adobe’s FY2026 guidance suggests confidence in its platform approach. The company is projecting up to $26.10 billion in revenue and expects to generate $2.6 billion in new ARR, its highest ever beginning-of-year forecast. Firefly adoption is accelerating. Acrobat AI Assistant usage is up 4x year over year. Express monthly active users have surpassed 750 million.

But Adobe still faces execution risks. Pricing model complexity, user education on generative credit systems, and the challenge of maintaining proprietary differentiation in a world of open-source models will all test the company’s ability to scale. The Semrush integration must also translate into material brand visibility gains to justify the $1.9 billion outlay.

Nonetheless, Adobe’s execution in embedding itself across interfaces, use cases, and customer segments gives it a unique moat. While many firms are building AI applications, Adobe is quietly building the fabric on which agentic creativity, productivity, and marketing will run.

If the web is becoming a network of autonomous agents fulfilling user intent through conversation, then Adobe may well become the toolkit they reach for—again and again.