How Sam Garfield Is Building Adobe's AI Operating System for Advertising

In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down with Sam Garfield, Head of Digital Strategy for CMT Data and AI Platforms at Adobe, to explore how Adobe is quietly becoming the backbone of modern marketing. Sam breaks down how Adobe operates across three core layers: the creative layer (Creative Cloud and Firefly AI), the content supply chain layer (Workfront and asset management), and the data and experience layer (customer data platforms and analytics). Together, these tools form what Sam describes as an operating system for marketers -- a full-stack solution that takes a brand from ideation all the way through activation and measurement.

We also dig into the rise of creative intelligence and what it means for brands, agencies, and the future of advertising. Sam unpacks Adobe's Winterberry Group research showing a 23% increase in investment in creative intelligence, and explains why creative can no longer be treated as a fixed cost. We cover how generative AI is accelerating asset production at scale, why agencies are leaning into Adobe's platform rather than building from scratch, and how agentic AI is beginning to appear inside existing workflows. Sam also reveals that traffic to brand sites and publishers is down 40% as LLMs reshape discovery, and shares how Adobe's new LLM Optimizer tool is helping brands regain visibility in a generative search world.

 

Key Highlights

🖥️ Adobe's Marketing Operating System: Sam breaks down how Adobe's three-layer platform -- creative, content supply chain, and data -- functions as an end-to-end OS for brands and agencies.

🤖 Generative AI and the Asset Scale Problem: Sam walks through the math problem facing global brands -- producing assets across formats, languages, and channels -- and why generative AI is the only scalable solution.

📊 Creative Intelligence Is the Next Frontier: Adobe's research with Winterberry Group found a 23% increase in creative intelligence investment -- and Sam explains why understanding why content performs is becoming as systematic as audience targeting.

🏢 Agencies Are Building on Top, Not From Scratch: Major holding companies are integrating Adobe into their proprietary platforms rather than building from scratch -- including a recently expanded WPP partnership.

🔍 LLMs Are Reshaping Brand Discovery: Adobe's research shows traffic to brand sites is down 40% as AI changes how consumers find information. Sam shares how Adobe's new LLM Optimizer helps brands monitor and improve their visibility inside AI-generated results.

⚡ Agentic AI Is Here but Still Early: There is no end-to-end agentic advertising solution yet. Adobe's approach is to embed agentic tools inside existing workflows so teams can get started without overhauling their entire operation.

Resources & Next Steps

🌐 Explore Adobe's Marketing and AI Solutions

🔗 Follow Sam Garfield on LinkedIn

🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts

 

YouTube Chapter Timestamps

00:00 Cold open -- AI's impact on advertising and brand discovery

01:00 Mike introduces Sam Garfield and Adobe's role in ad tech

01:30 Sam's background and Adobe's history in advertising

02:00 Adobe's three-layer marketing platform explained

03:00 The 'operating system for marketers' concept

03:50 Who is Adobe's customer -- brands, agencies, or publishers?

04:20 The expanded WPP and agency partnership announcement

05:10 Where creative AI optimization stands today

05:40 The asset scale math problem facing global brands

06:20 Laying the generative AI foundation for creative

07:10 From production efficiency to intelligent automation

08:00 Precor creative intelligence and variation at scale

08:40 How conservative vs. progressive brands approach AI

09:10 Adobe Firefly and legally obtained training data

09:40 Workflow integration as the real barrier to adoption

10:10 Humans as creatives, AI as the production layer

10:50 How Adobe fits alongside platform-native AI tools

11:30 Why CMOs won't hand over full creative control to platforms

13:30 Adobe's Winterberry Group creative intelligence research

14:00 Creative as a performance driver, not a fixed cost

14:30 The 23% increase in creative intelligence investment

15:00 Where creative intelligence works -- display, social, CTV

15:30 Early findings and the testing and learning phase

16:10 Are creative agencies threatened or empowered by AI?

16:30 How major holding companies are building on Adobe's OS

17:10 Automating rote work to free up strategic creative thinking

18:20 Creative AI and media buying converging

19:00 Data and creative intelligence coming together at Adobe

19:40 The future of always-on marketing vs. campaign flights

20:20 The network operations center vision for marketing

21:00 Agentic AI in advertising -- where things actually stand

21:30 Adobe's approach to building agentic tools inside workflows

22:00 What agentic audience pulling looks like in practice

22:30 The future of media agencies in an algorithmic world

23:10 People doing higher-value strategic work, not less work

23:40 How brands are showing up inside LLMs

24:00 Adobe's research -- traffic to brand sites down 40%

24:30 Introducing the LLM Optimizer tool

25:00 Structuring content for generative engine optimization

25:40 Will search ad budgets shift to LLM visibility strategies?

26:20 The unknown future of advertising inside AI-generated results

27:10 Wrap-up -- the fulfillment of advertising's long-promised future