Hands-on with Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant: AI for your PDFs

We may be on the brink of 2025, but PDFs are still unavoidable in the professional world. No matter what industry you work in, you’re bound to whittle away precious moments wading through reports, white papers, and other dense documents in that clunky-feeling form.If that sounds all too familiar, take heed: Adobe thinks it’s at long last found a way to bring PDFs into the current century — thanks to the power of AI.Acrobat AI Assistant is a new AI chatbot built right into Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. Adobe offered me a sneak peek, so I gave it a spin to see how well it’d work for professional Windows users.Here’s what to expect.Want to keep an eye on the future of AI in Windows — and everything else Windows-related, too? Check out my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. Plus, get free Windows Field Guides as a bonus when you sign up!The ins and outs of Adobe’s Acrobat AI AssistantAdobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant is an AI chatbot sidebar in Acrobat and Reader. No matter which application you’re using, it will cost you an extra $5 per person per month. And speaking of AI: Adobe now also offers easy AI image generation features right in Adobe Acrobat, too.Adobe is using GPT 4o technology here, which means it’s the same generative AI (genAI) tech that powers both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.As an alternative, it’s worth noting that you can also provide ChatGPT itself with PDF files and ask questions about them directly using that service. If you’re already a big ChatGPT user who pays $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus and you have a workflow that works well with it, Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant might not be quite as tempting.But for people who use Acrobat at work, that extra $5 add-on fee to gain an AI assistant built right into the same application could be an enticing option.How the Acrobat AI Assistant chatbot worksThe Acrobat AI Assistant is easy to use and find: Just open a PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Reader. Then, click the colorful “AI Assistant” button on the toolbar. Adobe’s AI chatbot will open in a sidebar, providing you with a summary of the document and suggesting questions. You can also click a “Generative Summary” button in the All Tools sidebar to immediately get a summary of your document.Adobe’s AI chatbot is always just one click away.Chris Hoffman, IDGIt works with PDFs up to 600 pages long, and you can use the “Add files” button to add additional PDFs into the mix. In total, you can provide the Adobe AI Assistant with up to 10 PDF files at a time. Then you can ask questions and get answers based on all the files you provided.In my experience, the Acrobat AI Assistant works well, by and large. That’s no surprise, since it’s using GPT 4o technology under the hood. It provides answers very similar to what you’d get from ChatGPT — which is exactly what people who want AI integration in a productivity app are looking for.One thing that really jumped out at me is that the Acrobat AI Assistant gives you the ability to fact check its answers. This is a critical capability with AI, which notoriously has a tendency to spew out inaccurate info at times. The Acrobat AI Assistant provides easily identifiable sources, pointing to specific pages where it found pieces of information. That means it’s not just a tool that will do all the work for you — it’s a powerful research assistant that can sift through information and let you confirm it’s actually getting things right.The AI Assistant provides suggested questions, but you can ask anything you like.Chris Hoffman, IDGAcrobat AI and Adobe FireflySpeaking of AI, Adobe Acrobat also has built-in access to Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s genAI image model. You can right-click right in a PDF and select Add Image > Generate Image to open the Adobe Express interface in Acrobat. Then you can quickly generate and insert an image. You can also use this to replace an existing image in a PDF.Once again, it works well, which is no surprise: Adobe’s Firefly is a capable image generator.Adobe’s Firefly image generation model is just a few clicks away, too.Chris Hoffman, IDGThe value of integrationWhether it’s the chatbot that uses the same underlying technology as ChatGPT or the Adobe Firefly-powered image insertion features, one thing is clear: Adobe’s aim here is all about integration. Adobe isn’t delivering any new and unheard-of AI features; rather, it’s bringing all that power directly into a tool you already rely on during your workday.That’s not a bad thing — in fact, it’s a good one: By integrating AI chatbots and image generation tools into a standard business productivity tool, Adobe makes it easy to access those features and reduces the friction of having to copy-paste text and images between multiple tools just to get things accomplished.That sort of polished package is especially important for businesses, as Adobe promises to safeguard data privacy and prevent all info from being used to train AI models. Most businesses don’t want their employees providing business data to consumer AI tools, as it’s often unclear whether that data is protected in the same way. In other words, copy-pasting business data into external AI tools doesn’t just make for an inconvenient workflow — it’s potentially dangerous for sensitive business data.For Acrobat AI Assistant for enterprise customers, Adobe has a detailed document describing how it uses and respects customer data. Plus, since Adobe’s assistant is also available as an add-on for the Adobe Reader application, organizations can easily roll out the chatbot even to employees who don’t need the full-fledged Acrobat program.The future of AI in AcrobatAdobe sees this current assistant as the first step in a long plan to bring useful AI tools into the Acrobat environment. An Adobe representative tells me “the [current] features are just the beginning of Adobe’s vision to leverage generative AI to reimagine the value of documents for Acrobat customers.”Specifically, Adobe says it plans to enable “AI-powered authoring, editing, and formatting” in Acrobat before long. This includes the ability to have AI generate first drafts, copy-edit, rewrite text, and suggest layout options for documents.In addition, Adobe has plans to use AI for collaboration in Acrobat: Adobe’s generative AI will analyze feedback and comments, suggest changes, and help deal with conflicting pieces of feedback.It’s something I expect to see more of — not just in Adobe Acrobat and Reader, but across all productivity apps. As these technologies grow more mature, we’re learning how they’re best used for professional purposes — and they’re increasingly being built right into the business applications we use every day with those same sorts of purposes in mind.Interested in timely updates on what’s going on in Windows — including with AI? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. You’ll get three new things to try every Friday and free in-depth Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus.

Can Adobe’s fancy new chatbot actually make PDFs easier to manage? We may be on the brink of 2025, but PDFs are still unavoidable in the professional world. No matter what industry you work in, you’re bound to whittle away precious moments wading through reports, white papers, and other dense documents in that clunky-feeling form. If that sounds all too familiar, take heed: Adobe thinks it’s at long last found a way to bring PDFs into the current century — thanks to the power of AI.

Acrobat AI Assistant is a new AI chatbot built right into Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. Adobe offered me a sneak peek, so I gave it a spin to see how well it’d work for professional Windows users. Here’s what to expect.

Want to keep an eye on the future of AI in Windows — and everything else Windows-related, too? Check out my free Windows Intelligence newsletter . Plus, get free Windows Field Guides as a bonus when you sign up! The ins and outs of Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant is an AI chatbot sidebar in Acrobat and Reader. No matter which application you’re using, it will cost you an extra $5 per person per month.

And speaking of AI: Adobe now also offers easy AI image generation features right in Adobe Acrobat, too. Adobe is using GPT 4o technology here, which means it’s the same generative AI (genAI) tech that powers both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot . As an alternative, it’s worth noting that you can also provide ChatGPT itself with PDF files and ask questions about them directly using that service.

If you’re already a big ChatGPT user who pays $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus and you have a workflow that works well with it, Adobe’s Acrobat AI Assistant might not be quite as tempting. But for people who use Acrobat at work, that extra $5 add-on fee to gain an AI assistant built right into the same application could be an enticing option. How the Acrobat AI Assistant chatbot works The Acrobat AI Assistant is easy to use and find: Just open a PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Reader.

Then, click the colorful “AI Assistant” button on the toolbar. Adobe’s AI chatbot will open in a sidebar, providing you with a summary of the document and suggesting questions. You can also click a “Generative Summary” button in the All Tools sidebar to immediately get a summary of your document.

Chris Hoffman, IDG It works with PDFs up to 600 pages long, and you can use the “Add files” button to add additional PDFs into the mix. In total, you can provide the Adobe AI Assistant with up to 10 PDF files at a time. Then you can ask questions and get answers based on all the files you provided.

In my experience, the Acrobat AI Assistant works well, by and large. That’s no surprise, since it’s using GPT 4o technology under the hood. It provides answers very similar to what you’d get from ChatGPT — which is exactly what people who want AI integration in a productivity app are looking for.

One thing that really jumped out at me is that the Acrobat AI Assistant gives you the ability to fact check its answers. This is a critical capability with AI, which notoriously has a tendency to spew out inaccurate info at times. The Acrobat AI Assistant provides easily identifiable sources, pointing to specific pages where it found pieces of information.

That means it’s not just a tool that will do all the work for you — it’s a powerful research assistant that can sift through information and let you confirm it’s actually getting things right. Chris Hoffman, IDG Acrobat AI and Adobe Firefly Speaking of AI, Adobe Acrobat also has built-in access to Adobe Firefly , Adobe’s genAI image model. You can right-click right in a PDF and select Add Image > Generate Image to open the Adobe Express interface in Acrobat.

Then you can quickly generate and insert an image. You can also use this to replace an existing image in a PDF. Once again, it works well, which is no surprise: Adobe’s Firefly is a capable image generator.

Chris Hoffman, IDG The value of integration Whether it’s the chatbot that uses the same underlying technology as ChatGPT or the Adobe Firefly-powered image insertion features, one thing is clear: Adobe’s aim here is all about integration. Adobe isn’t delivering any new and unheard-of AI features; rather, it’s bringing all that power directly into a tool you already rely on during your workday. That’s not a bad thing — in fact, it’s a good one: By integrating AI chatbots and image generation tools into a standard business productivity tool, Adobe makes it easy to access those features and reduces the friction of having to copy-paste text and images between multiple tools just to get things accomplished.

That sort of polished package is especially important for businesses, as Adobe promises to safeguard data privacy and prevent all info from being used to train AI models. Most businesses don’t want their employees providing business data to consumer AI tools, as it’s often unclear whether that data is protected in the same way. In other words, copy-pasting business data into external AI tools doesn’t just make for an inconvenient workflow — it’s potentially dangerous for sensitive business data.

For Acrobat AI Assistant for enterprise customers, Adobe has a detailed document describing how it uses and respects customer data. Plus, since Adobe’s assistant is also available as an add-on for the Adobe Reader application, organizations can easily roll out the chatbot even to employees who don’t need the full-fledged Acrobat program. The future of AI in Acrobat Adobe sees this current assistant as the first step in a long plan to bring useful AI tools into the Acrobat environment.

An Adobe representative tells me “the [current] features are just the beginning of Adobe’s vision to leverage generative AI to reimagine the value of documents for Acrobat customers.” Specifically, Adobe says it plans to enable “AI-powered authoring, editing, and formatting” in Acrobat before long. This includes the ability to have AI generate first drafts, copy-edit, rewrite text, and suggest layout options for documents.

In addition, Adobe has plans to use AI for collaboration in Acrobat: Adobe’s generative AI will analyze feedback and comments, suggest changes, and help deal with conflicting pieces of feedback. It’s something I expect to see more of — not just in Adobe Acrobat and Reader, but across all productivity apps. As these technologies grow more mature, we’re learning how they’re best used for professional purposes — and they’re increasingly being built right into the business applications we use every day with those same sorts of purposes in mind.

Interested in timely updates on what’s going on in Windows — including with AI? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter . You’ll get three new things to try every Friday and free in-depth Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus..