When investors think of companies wading deep into artificial intelligence waters, names like Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) come to mind. IBM is, of course, the creator of the Watson AI platform, while Nvidia makes the ultra-fast GPUs needed to crunch all the numbers involved in the development of artificial intelligence tools. Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), which primarily makes business software, generally doesn’t make it into the AI conversation.
That may be about to change, however. Although Sensei, its artificial intelligence platform is still in its fledgling stages, it’s being put to use in enough important ways to bring ADBE stock into the conversation about which names will end up winning the brewing AI wars.
Meet Sensei
You know the company as the creator of PDFs (portable document format), which have made reading and printing documents on the web quite easy since 1993.
That’s hardly the only thing Adobe does anymore, however. It now offers a whole host of software, including several cloud-based options, that help businesses do more and get more. Professional versions of Photoshop and online e-signatures are just a couple of options on its menu. It’s waist-deep into web analytics and advertising-management as well.
It’s taking its current platforms to the next level, however, with Sensei. You’ve not heard much about it, but you will soon enough.
Sensei, in the company’s own words, “uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning to help you discover opportunities that are hidden, make tedious processes fast, and show you which data insights matter – and when they matter. Adobe Sensei draws from our massive volumes of content and data assets and our decades of experience in creativity, marketing, and document management. Simply put, Adobe Sensei helps your business work smarter and faster.”
To what extent it qualifies at artificial intelligence isn’t clear; Adobe hasn’t exactly divulged the inner workings. It is artificial intelligence by the more generous definition of AI though, in that it performs a function that couldn’t really be performed by a mere manual review or manipulation of existing data.
Sensei already is being put to practical use as well. Last week, Adobe announced a service that melds the personalized experience of walking into a bank branch and that customer’s experience using the bank’s website or app. One of the outcomes is a reconfiguration of the website or app so that particular user can easily find the tools and information most important to them. To work well, the platform has to dig deep into what it knows about an individual… something that needs to be automated, and fast-thinking. As Adobe’s Christopher Young explained, “AI and machine-learning can help banks to see in their data what humans can’t uncover manually, tapping this to better connect with customers.”
It’s not an earth-shattering evolution. It is a practical and marketable one though, and one that means something to consumer-centric companies.
The very same Sensei AI platform can also tweak images, or downright change them as needed not just to adjust lighting and color, but to manipulate and rearrange parts of a picture for what’s ultimately a better (and sometimes impossible) photograph.
It’s good news for consumers that take perpetually bad selfies, but it’s a particularly powerful tool for commercial photographers that need outright move or replace certain parts of a picture. The AI software “knows” what it’s looking at, and knows how to shift or change pixels without the image looking airbrushed or spliced.
Machine-driven vision is actually something of a holy grail for the artificial intelligence industry.
Bottom Line for ADBE Stock
Don’t read too much into the development. It could be years before Sensei starts to make a material impact on ADBE earnings reports, and several powerhouse companies are well ahead of Adobe when it comes to AI.
On the other hand, there’s something to be said for not being first. Adobe’s position in the race means it can let others deal with the headache and expense of being a trailblazer, and then it can learn from other players.
It’s also worth explicitly mentioning that the company isn’t creating AI technology just for the sake of creating a new kind of technology. It’s building Sensei with the purpose of making its existing software platforms even more potent. In that regard, its wide moat just got a little wider.
Whatever the case, put ADBE stock on your artificial intelligence radar. It’s earned its place on that watchlist.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.
