Adobe Firefly AI Assistant can now run your recurring tasks automatically

A planning mode before anything runs

At its Max conference in Miami on November 10th, 2026, Adobe said the updated assistant now runs a new "planning mode" ¹. You give it a job and it lays out the steps it intends to take — which model to use, what order to do things in, and so on — and you can edit that plan before giving final approval .

Users can also pick a specific model to run the whole workflow, or leave it up to Adobe to choose automatically ¹. On top of that, there are fresh customization sliders: you can pin brand colours and guidelines so they apply across every project the assistant touches .

Always-on agents for repetitive work

The headline feature is a preview of "always-on" agents designed for recurring tasks ¹. In a demo shared with Engadget, a user told Firefly AI Assistant to sort raw footage as it streamed into a project . The assistant offered to organise the clips, apply colour LUTs, clean up audio and back everything up — all of which the user approved step by step in the planning screen . Once the tidy-up finished, the same assistant was then asked to plan a social-media promotion campaign for the project .

In other words, instead of clicking through five separate tools, you might just tell the assistant what you want done and let it figure out the route ¹.

Premiere gets an agent on the go

Separately, Adobe is bringing a voice-and-text agent to the Premiere mobile app, which launched on iOS last year and later arrived on Android ¹. The mobile agent lets users describe edits in plain language and see them happen on their phone . It is entering private preview first before a wider release .

Adobe is also testing what it calls MCP connections, which would let outside chatbots reach into Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and After Effects to edit layers and other assets directly ¹. No dates were given for either the mobile preview or the MCP programme.

Who is this for?

During demos, Zorana Gee, Adobe's senior director of agentic product, highlighted small-business owners as an early group who could use the assistant to churn out social posts without knowing professional editing software ¹. When asked whether the long-term aim was to sidestep creatives entirely, she pushed back: "Ultimately, we're a creative company serving creatives… it's about how do we allow anybody to hone their craft" .

I also pressed her on Artcraft, a free open-source competitor built using the latest coding models from Anthropic and OpenAI, which has started drawing some hobbyist attention ¹. Gee said Adobe believes its focus on professionalism, security and reliability would keep users returning to the paid ecosystem .

No pricing or availability dates were announced for any of the new features beyond the private-preview note for the mobile agent.

This story reports on a trend for information only. It is not advice or encouragement to do any of it.

Key facts

• Firefly AI Assistant gains a planning mode that shows users the steps before executing them
• Always-on agents are in preview and can handle recurring tasks like footage organisation
• Premiere mobile agent enters private preview and edits via natural language
• MCP connections being tested to let external chatbots control Adobe apps directly

Sources

1. Adobe Firefly AI Assistant can now take on recurring tasks for you - Engadget — engadget.com