Three Disney creative teams will build their own AI image tools with Adobe under a multi-year alliance the two companies announced on November 9, 2026. Adobe is now an "Official AI Innovation Partner" of The Walt Disney Company, and the first projects cover Walt Disney Imagineering, The Walt Disney Studios' StudioLAB and ESPN Edge.
The deal was unveiled at Adobe MAX, Adobe's yearly creative conference, held this year in Miami Beach, Florida. Adobe's announcement does not give the length of the term or any money involved, and none of the coverage we read reports those figures either.
What the Adobe-Disney AI partnership includes
The alliance has two halves: technology for Disney and marketing for Adobe.
On the technology side, Adobe will give Disney:
- Early access to its newest AI, creative and media tools, naming Adobe Firefly (its generative AI app), Firefly Foundry, Premiere (video editing) and Photoshop.
- Dedicated engineering and research staff working on Disney's projects.
- Custom generative models built with Disney through Firefly Foundry and trained on Disney's own character designs, settings and visual styles.
On the marketing side, Adobe will promote its work with five Disney units: Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, ESPN Edge and StudioLAB. It will also run more of its own marketing on Disney's media platforms, and the partnership is set to appear at Adobe Summit, Adobe MAX and other industry events. PPC Land's analysis points out that neither company disclosed whether the deal is exclusive, or any speed, cost or output figures.
What is Firefly Foundry?
Firefly Foundry is Adobe's service for companies that want a private AI model built around their own brand. Instead of a general model that anyone can prompt, a business works with Adobe to tune a model on assets it owns, so the results match its characters and art style.
When Adobe first described Disney's use of it in June, it said the custom models sit on top of its commercially available Firefly models and are tuned on Imagineering's own design catalog plus licensed and proprietary franchise assets, not on images scraped from the internet. That is the core of the "commercially safe" claim both companies make: the training material is art Disney already owns or licenses.
How each Disney team will use it
| Disney team | What the sources say it will do with Adobe |
|---|---|
| Walt Disney Imagineering R&D | A sketch-to-image model that turns hand-drawn ideas into finished 2D concept art, and an image model for on-brand franchise assets |
| StudioLAB (The Walt Disney Studios) | Adobe joins as an Innovation Partner to test new tools and internal creative workflows |
| ESPN Edge | Explore how AI can lift fan engagement, shape content delivery and make use of ESPN's archive |
The Imagineering work is the most concrete. The June announcement listed franchises such as Mickey & Friends, Frozen, Moana, Lilo & Stitch and Cars for the custom image model, and also described a tool that turns 2D renderings into 3D prototypes for planning builds. Imagineering is Disney's design and engineering arm for its parks, hotels and cruise ships.
The sources differ on how far along this is. In June, Adobe said Imagineers would "soon" use the models. The November release says Imagineering R&D is already using Firefly Foundry for both models. PPC Land describes the sketch-to-image work as still experimental rather than rolled out across Imagineering. For StudioLAB and ESPN Edge, the companies say joint projects are underway but have named none.
Who said what
Laughing Place's report on the announcement carries the Disney side of the deal. Becca Vodnoy, Disney's senior vice president of corporate alliances, said the alliance gives Disney's creative teams new ways to explore and develop their ideas. For Adobe, Hannah Elsakr, vice president of GenAI new business ventures, described AI as something that speeds up artistic vision, creativity and guest engagement.
Why a studio wants its own AI model
A private model trained only on a company's own library answers two problems at once. It keeps outputs on-model, so a generated Stitch looks like Stitch. It also keeps the company's characters out of a public model that other users can prompt. The open question, which PPC Land also raises, is how the individual artists whose work makes up Disney's catalog are credited or paid when that work trains the model.
This is also the latest step in Adobe's push to sell Firefly to businesses rather than only to individual creators. Earlier this year Adobe added an AI agent to Acrobat, covered in our report on how Adobe Acrobat now turns PDFs into podcasts and slides.
What changes for people who use Firefly
Nothing yet. The models built under this deal are private to Disney, and the announcement says nothing about Firefly plans, prices or features for individual subscribers anywhere, including the Philippines. More joint projects are due to roll out over the term of the alliance, and Adobe says the work will feature again at its future conferences.
