5 Reasons Why Photoshop’s Generative Workspace Will Be Adobe’s Best Feature

Photoshop (Beta) users can now try Photoshop’s Generative Workspace, an exciting feature set to become a cornerstone of Creative Cloud. Any Creative Cloud subscriber can access Adobe beta apps—that’s simply beta versions of any Adobe app—through the Creative Cloud hub.

Generative Workspace is one of the best AI features announced at Adobe Max 2024 and will be the new home for your AI-generated images and files. Here’s why I think this will be Adobe’s most valuable feature.

1 Generative organization of artificial intelligence

Adobe is pretty good with file management options. Not only does it provide cloud storage with a Creative Cloud subscription, but Adobe programs like Bridge and Frame.io allow useful and organized file management.

The generative workspace expected in Photoshop will act as a file manager for your AI-generated images. It’s not entirely clear if it will be implemented in other Adobe software, but I expect it will be. This would mean that you can access generated images created in other Adobe programs regardless of where you open Generative Workspace.

The generative workspace not only stores and presents your generated images, but also the text prompts and other aspects you used to generate them. This is useful for recreating a past style or result because you don’t have to save your challenges anywhere to record them.

2 A library of all your past images

It’s easy to lose generated images from past projects, especially if you pick one variation and then continue with it, you often lose other variations. While you may not have selected any of the other options for a given project, they may come in handy in future projects.

The Generative Workspace saves every image of your AI generations past, so you can access them again at any time in the future. And they’re all stored in one central location, so you don’t have to open old projects to find them all.

3 Potential cross-platform access

Although Generative Workspace was only announced for Photoshop Beta – with the understanding that it would be in Photoshop once approved – the long-term expectation is that Generative Workspace will be available across Creative Cloud.

Think of all the Adobe software you can now generate images in: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Adobe Express, Acrobat – via Adobe Express – and more if we include mobile and web apps. Adobe is also bringing AI video generation to Premiere Pro and Firefly, which is already in beta at the time of writing.

Being able to access all your generated images from Adobe products in one place will make a big difference in time efficiency and productivity. While Adobe hasn’t announced or confirmed this, it’s a realistic expectation.

Adobe often announces new tools and features, and sometimes introduces them in unexpected ways.

4 High quality generated results

As with all images generated by Adobe AI, the quality is unmatched. Generative Workspace uses Adobe Firefly 3 during beta, but by the time it’s released for public use, Adobe may already be working on Firefly 4 or higher.

The quality of Adobe Firefly 3 is incredible in my opinion. The visuals it produces consistently amaze me, and you rarely get the “narrative AI” that can be found in many other AI tools. I replicated smartphone photos using AI and Adobe Firefly 3 gave me the best results.

5 Variety of rapid entry and batch production

Adobe has always offered three or four image variants in any of its generative AI tools. Generative Workspace offers four variants per challenge and can create up to 20 variants, which is great for batch production.

To boost batch production and keep your productivity high, you can use the Generative Workspace to pump out AI images while previous ones are still being generated. There is no waiting period except for the current generation.

It’s also a great place to fine-tune your challenges. There are many customizable options within Adobe’s Generative Workspace and it works so fast that it’s easy to change small challenge variations, filters, textures, styles and more to fit your ideal vision.

If you are someone who often uses generative artificial intelligence in Adobe programs, then the ability to customize the generated images can be valuable.

You can easily add and edit variables for each prompt by entering adjectives in square brackets in the prompt. For example:

“Dinosaur in [pink, orange, green, purple] dress holding a [balloon, handbag, football] while dancing in the rain.”

Using variations in the prompt, you can quickly create dozens of images. You can change almost anything in an image, from individual elements to art styles or textures.

While there’s no timeline for a public implementation of the Generative Workspace into Adobe Photoshop or other Adobe programs, you can explore it in Photoshop Beta. The beta trial is promising and already showing incredible results. If you’re someone who uses AI imagery a lot in your work, this tool is set to be your new favorite Adobe feature.