Google’s New AI Image Editing Model May Benefit Adobe

On August 26, 2025, Google announced an upgrade to its Gemini AI model, allowing Gemini app users to edit images with text prompts. Features include background blur, stain and person removal, pose adjustments, colorizing black-and-white photos, and more.

This should be welcome news for anyone on the internet who wants to make their images more creative just by using text prompts. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about LLMs’ capabilities for personal use and AI for solving business problems. Conversations are abuzz about “Nano Banana,” the code name for Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image AI, being a threat to Adobe’s dominance in image editing. I watched several discussions about Adobe’s stock performance and competitive standing, despite the company’s own AI developments.

What Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image AI Does

I tested the model’s capabilities, which include changing backgrounds of an image, removing an entire person from a photo, altering a subject’s pose, and adding color to a black-and-white photo. Some of the features, like magic erase, which enables removing objects like a fence, were available before this feature launch to users of Google photos on Pixel devices.

Here are a few example of my experiments:

Turn your vacation photos into a comprehensive image!

Image generated from a prompt about the summer ending and trip to Europe. Created by Shashi Bellamkonda using Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image

Use imagination to create graphics to accompany any use case

Image credit: Created by Shashi Bellamkonda using Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image

Change the background or location

Image credit: Created by Shashi Bellamkonda using Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image

For developers, 2.5 Flash Image is also available as a preview on Vertex AI in Google Cloud, though it requires a Google Cloud project with billing enabled and the Vertex AI API enabled.

Adobe’s Strategic Integration of Gemini 2.5 Flash Image

It’s worth noting that Adobe is one of the first to integrate Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image model to strengthen its platform for creative and marketing professionals.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Image stands out for speed and image quality, especially in simple content generation, and finds its full potential within Adobe’s ecosystem. Adobe is integrating generative models into its platform, enabling users to access AI tools as they are released.

By offering a range of generative AI models, including its own Firefly models and partner models like Gemini, Adobe lets users select the best generative AI model for their creative needs. This approach supports experimentation with industry-leading AI models within Adobe’s ecosystem and streamlines workflows – accelerating content creation in Creative Cloud apps and boosting efficiency for marketing and content teams.

Our Take

Initial reactions were that this posed a major threat to Adobe’s business. What the market is missing is that Adobe is able to bring the best available image and video AI models and integrate them into sophisticated, end-to-end professional workflows. Instead of thinking that professionals will leave Adobe to use Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, in fact Adobe users will benefit from having the model integrated within Adobe apps.

Google’s new tool benefits business professionals and consumers seeking simple content creation, but it lacks precision and advanced features essential for creative and marketing professionals who rely on Adobe’s software.

Adobe is partnering with many generative AI providers, including Google, OpenAI, Black Forest Labs, Runway, Pika, Ideogram, Luma, and others, to provide models in Adobe Firefly with a subset also available in Adobe Express. Customers can select commercially safe Firefly generative AI models or opt for partner generative AI models.

Adobe’s suite of professional tools – Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro – provides the precision and advanced capabilities required for creative and marketing workflows. With Gemini integration, professionals can leverage rapid ideation and swift asset generation, followed by a seamless transition to Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps for detailed refinement, editing, and final production.

While the casual user will be delighted by Google’s release, the power users already using Adobe’s products will find this service adds to Adobe’s core value prop rather than detracting from it. It’s a win-win for all.