Adobe announced a batch of AI features for Acrobat, headlined by chat-based PDF editing that lets users remove pages, swap text, and add passwords by typing what they want. The press release positions it as part of Acrobat Studio, Adobe's combined productivity hub that merges Acrobat with Adobe Express.
The editing system accepts natural-language prompts for tasks like deleting comments, extracting images, and applying e-signatures. Adobe says users can also generate presentations directly from document collections, with Express handling the slide design. A separate feature produces podcast-style audio summaries from PDFs and web links, aimed at people who'd rather listen than read through dense reports. Company SVP Abhigyan Modi framed it as solving "information overload."
Users can pick from preset AI personas (analyst, instructor, entertainer) or write custom prompts to adjust how the assistant responds. The collaboration layer now supports shared AI-generated summaries with citations pointing to specific document locations.
Adobe claims AI usage across Acrobat grew 4x over the past year. A Forrester study commissioned by Adobe found 45% efficiency gains for summarization tasks, though that's vendor-funded research worth taking with appropriate skepticism.
The Bottom Line: Acrobat joins the growing list of productivity tools betting users will prefer typing commands over clicking through menus.
QUICK FACTS
- Announcement date: January 21, 2026
- Available in: Acrobat Studio
- AI personas: analyst, instructor, entertainer, plus custom options
- Claimed efficiency gain: 45% for document summarization (Forrester study, Adobe-commissioned)
- AI growth: 4x increase in AI usage across Acrobat over past year (company-reported)
