Adobe adds AI-powered Quick Cut to Firefly video editor

Adobe has introduced Quick Cut, a new AI-powered feature within its Adobe Firefly platform. The tool allows users to generate a first draft of a video using natural language instructions. By describing the desired video outcomes in natural language, users can prompt the tool to automatically edit out irrelevant footage and arrange different takes. It also works with B-roll—which refers to supplementary footage used in video editing—to help create transitions between cuts. However, Adobe emphasizes that the tool is strictly designed to deliver a first draft. Video editors will still need to manually adjust elements, transitions, and takes to assemble the final product, as the AI is not intended to generate a completed final cut.

The feature is aimed at reducing the time creators spend on the initial, repetitive stages of video production. Mike Folgner, Adobe’s product lead for AI and next-generation video tools, noted that creators and marketers frequently communicate a need for fast turnaround times and time-saving techniques that help them reach their creative vision as quickly as possible. Folgner explained that the tool addresses the less creative aspects of the workflow. “One thing we do know is that some of the mundane parts that come with video [editing], like just getting the selects in order, that’s not really where they find joy and difference. They find joy in putting their spin on it. So Quick Cut is meant to help creators who have a set of media find the story very quickly and just get to a story cut as fast as possible,” Folgner said.

This launch builds on Adobe’s ongoing updates to its creative software suite. In December, the company rolled out a timeline-based video editor—an interface that organizes media on a chronological track. That previous update introduced layers and prompt-based editing, which is an editing process controlled by text instructions. The addition of Quick Cut represents a further step in integrating generative AI directly into traditional video editing timelines, allowing users to combine automated draft generation with manual timeline adjustments.

Why it matters

Adobe is expanding its AI-powered video editing capabilities with Quick Cut, a feature designed to automate the initial assembly of footage to help creators and marketers achieve faster turnaround times.