The report findings were published following the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi earlier this year, which marked the first international AI summit hosted in the Global South, convening delegates from over 100 countries.
Announcements from Adobe at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 to offer Indian students access to Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Acrobat for free alongside opening their new office in Noida also speak to the tech giant’s continuing investment in India as a global hub for AI innovation.
Adobe research recognises India as ‘Innovators’
One of the key takeaways from Adobe’s AI Adoption report is that Indian professionals demonstrate strong AI leadership, with 63% identifying as Innovators in technology adoption.
The report, based on a study originally conducted in December 2025, focuses on three major APAC markets: Australia, South Korea, and India. Demographics of professional creatives aged 18 to 44 were surveyed by Adobe researchers to determine perceptions and applications of AI across the different national markets.
To do this, the report uses a grading system where respondents were asked to self-identify with any of the following categories, measuring from most AI-ready to least AI-ready:
- Innovators
- Early Adopters
- Early Majority
- Late Majority
- Laggards
While Indian respondents were significantly more likely to identify as ‘Innovators’ (63%), the majority of respondents based in Australia and South Korea comparatively skewed closer toward the ‘Early Adopters’ label (42% and 43%, respectively).
Adobe states in their reporting findings that these insights matter because ‘markets with stronger Innovator representation often move through early experimentation phases more quickly’. This is because as per the report grading system, Innovators tend to:
- test tools earlier,
- experiment more broadly, and
- contribute to shaping how technologies are applied in practice.
The report spotlighting India as an ‘innovative’ AI market further corroborates Adobe’s decision to open their office in Noida and make similar investments in AI development within India’s business landscape.
Indian creatives experimenting with more AI technologies
Most casual AI users will generally only use 1-2 tools. You may use an AI video generator or image generator when creating digital art, or even just use basic AI text editing tools to make sure all your emails are grammatically correct. In their study, Adobe sought to get to the heart of AI usage habits across the Asia-Pacific region.
Of the three national markets surveyed, India recorded the highest levels of trust in AI, as well as readiness to develop AI skills, and reported consistent use of more than one AI tool on average.
Where South Korean respondents reported using an average of 2.2 AI tools and Australian respondents reported using an average of 2.4 AI tools, Indian creative professionals reported using a significantly higher average of 4.4 AI tools in the past 12 months.
These insights demonstrate more proactive AI experimentation from India’s creative landscape – which is likely also the reason why Adobe is investing in the expansion of compatible partner models for their Firefly AI tools.
Local India research insights shaping Adobe AI tools
With Adobe’s recently announced partnership with NVIDIA in the ongoing development of Firefly and Firefly Foundry (Adobe’s solution for proprietary AI models, suitable for high-profile commercial use), signs point to the tech giants building towards a shared future of cross-collaborative AI ecosystems, where different generative AI platforms can build off of each other’s outputs.
The main benefit here is that AI users can keep using the right tools for the right tasks, building familiar AI workflows that deliver consistent outputs based on the strongest performance points across their library of AI tools.
What does this mean for AI users both within and outside of the APAC region? Adobe’s recognition of AI innovators relying comfortably on multiple tools means we can expect AI developers to be more collaborative rather than competitive. We’re unlikely to see a reality where Adobe Firefly tools aren’t compatible with ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and the many other AI tools that Innovators rely on daily.
Adobe continuing contributions to India’s AI development goals
Adobe’s announcement earlier this year at the India AI Impact Summit to offer Firefly, Photoshop and Acrobat access for free to Indian students was the result of a collaboration with the Indian government and the ongoing IndiaAI Mission. Focused on empowering AI startups, funding AI technology developments, and nurturing AI skills-building across Indian schools, colleges, and universities, the IndiaAI Mission is tasked with not only managing budgeting for AI investments across India, but also for establishing strong partnerships with global AI leaders like Adobe.
It’s through this partnership with the IndiaAI Mission that Adobe was able to rollout their own Content Creator Labs initiative, establishing Adobe skills-building workshops and amenities across select educational institutions in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities nationwide.
Setting up free AI-first learning tracks and opportunities for professional certifications for Indian students looking to build valuable AI skills is also estimated to further propel perceptions of AI and rates of AI adoption across India, transforming India’s business landscape into a dynamic case study on what can be made possible through harnessing the power of AI.
In this aspect, Adobe’s ongoing investments into India’s AI development speaks to a long-term strategy on building real-world value in their commercially-ready, copyright-safe AI tools. And it’s precisely this extended whole systems case study presented by India’s business landscape of AI Innovators that will solidify not only the value of AI in our day-to-day working lives, but also the role that AI technologies can play when transformation and integration projects are conducted and facilitated by highly skilled and knowledgeable professionals.
Adobe’s India investments speak to continuing AI developments
Despite their absence from the original AI boom in 2022-2023 which saw OpenAI and ChatGPT dominate headlines, Adobe has been silently developing their proprietary Firefly LLM models for upwards of a decade. The research they’re conducting now across India and the wider APAC region is to support further development and iteration of their unique AI offerings – but from here onwards, it’s not about developing based on what’s possible with machine learning, but rather based on what AI Innovators need from their tools.
Given the demonstrated readiness of Indian creative professionals in adopting AI tools and integrating them into their routines and workflows, we can assume that Adobe will continue looking to India not only for AI feedback but also for trialling new technologies, features, and products. India’s ongoing commitment to being a global leader in AI readiness and research will also further support Adobe’s growing presence in India’s tech scene.
Where will this research take us in a year’s time? It’s hard to say, but with India’s next AI Impact Summit and Adobe’s own annual Adobe Summit not very far away now, chances are looking to be high that the insights gleaned from this research will continue to influence movements from developers at Adobe Firefly, AI startups across India, and NGO strategists at the IndiaAI Mission.