Is Adobe on the path to destruction?
One programmer, one AI model, and an entire software empire in the crosshairs
Adobe built an empire over decades...
Now, new open-source projects are trying to do what seemed almost impossible until recently:
To rebuild the entire Creative Cloud suite, for free.
According to a publication by Movez, programmers behind the ArtCraft project are developing seven open-source applications, designed to directly compete with Adobe's flagship products, in Rust, with support for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Now, let's get acquainted with the new competitors:
- Photoshop - PhotoCraft
- Illustrator - VectorCraft
- Premiere Pro - FilmCraft
- After Effects - EffectCraft
- Lightroom - LightCraft
- InDesign - DesignCraft
- Acrobat - PdfCraft
Free software, open source.
According to the publication, the project garnered about 24,000 stars on GitHub in the first week.
This number may not yet prove that the products are capable of replacing Adobe, but it illustrates how much noise this idea is generating:
And here the real story begins.
Adobe doesn't just sell software, it sells a business model of recurring subscriptions, which has become a massive revenue machine.
But what happens when artificial intelligence allows small teams to build alternatives that previously required years of development and huge investments?
The danger is not necessarily that every professional designer will abandon Photoshop tomorrow.
The danger is that new users, freelancers, and small businesses will start asking a simple question:
Why should I pay hundreds of dollars a year if I can get a free tool that does the job?
Although there is still no proof that the new applications can compete with Adobe in all professional capabilities, and the claim that a single programmer built the entire suite with the help of one AI model is not sufficiently substantiated.
The trend is clear:
Artificial intelligence lowers the barriers to entry in the software industry, and also threatens companies that seemed invincible.
The risk is not necessarily an immediate collapse in revenue, but rather an erosion of pricing power, a slowdown in subscription growth, and a decrease in the multiple the market is willing to grant the company.
Adobe still holds significant advantages:
Professional products, customer loyalty, established workflows, and integration between applications, but these advantages no longer guarantee absolute immunity.
The revolution doesn't have to kill Adobe to harm the stock,
It's enough for it to make its products less essential and its subscriptions less self-evident.
In the age of AI, your most dangerous competitor is not necessarily a company worth billions.
Sometimes it's one AI bot...