Adobe is now the Official AI Innovation Partner of The Walt Disney Company. The two companies announced a multi-year strategic alliance on November 9 at Adobe MAX in Miami Beach, and Adobe will build custom AI models for Disney with its Firefly Foundry tool while giving teams from Walt Disney Imagineering to ESPN early access to its newest software.
Neither company shared financial terms. Here is what the alliance includes:
- Custom AI models: Adobe will use Firefly Foundry to build private models trained on Disney’s characters, worlds and art styles for Disney’s own creative teams. Firefly Foundry is not a public consumer app.
- Early access: Disney gets early access to Firefly, Photoshop and Premiere, plus a dedicated team of Adobe engineers and researchers.
- Movies: Adobe joins StudioLAB, Disney’s film technology test lab.
- ESPN: The companies will explore AI to reach sports fans and bring ESPN’s archive to life.
- Parks and cruises: Adobe will show up across Disney media and at events tied to Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line.
For parks fans, the biggest piece is Imagineering, and that work is already underway. In June, Adobe and Walt Disney Imagineering revealed Firefly Foundry tools that turn hand-drawn sketches into finished 2D concept art, generate on-brand art for franchises like Frozen, Moana, Lilo & Stitch and Cars, and turn 2D renderings into 3D prototypes for build planning. Disney says those models were built with licensed and Disney-owned work. Adobe says the tools will support concept work for both the parks and the cruise ships, but no guest-facing features were announced, so this is a behind-the-scenes design tool, not something you will use in the parks.
Becca Vodnoy, Disney’s senior vice president of corporate alliances, said the alliance will “give our creative teams new ways to explore and develop their ideas.” Hannah Elsakr, Adobe’s vice president of generative AI new business ventures, said the work “thoughtfully deploys AI as an accelerant for artistic vision, creativity and guest engagement.”
This is the latest in a long year of AI moves for Disney. It started with Disney’s $1 billion OpenAI deal that licensed more than 200 characters to Sora in December 2025, which ended when OpenAI shut Sora down three months later. In October, we explained Disney’s bid in the Character.AI bankruptcy, and just last week the 2026 Disney Accelerator class went all AI for the first time.
Adobe and Disney did not give a length for the multi-year alliance. For more Disney company news, visit our Walt Disney Company coverage.
