Adobe’s new AI assistant for Acrobat and Reader can summarize PDFs and answer questions

What just happened? Adobe has introduced an artificial intelligence assistant for its Reader and Acrobat applications. This AI can generate summaries, insights, and answer questions from long documents. It can also format the information it produces. The AI leverages the same technology behind Acrobat Liquid Mode, which provides responsive reading experiences for PDFs on mobile devices.

The AI assistant is currently in beta and available for Acrobat Individual, Pro, and Teams customers, as well as Acrobat Pro trialists. Features will be rolling out to Reader in the coming days and weeks. There is no additional cost for using the assistant during the beta phase.

This assistant can scan a PDF, provide a brief overview, answer questions, and generate citations. It also helps consolidate and format information for various purposes like emails, presentations, and reports.

While ChatGPT offers a similar service, Adobe’s AI assistant is integrated into its products, removing the need to upload files separately. Adobe assures users that data security protocols are in place to protect customer content and that no documents are stored or used for training the AI without consent.

Once the AI assistant is out of beta, users may need to sign up for a new add-on subscription plan. Adobe has been active in the generative AI space, introducing Firefly generative AI for various applications like Adobe Express, Experience Manager, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Creative Cloud apps like Premiere Pro.