Adobe says partnership with Airtel will help it bring AI-enabled Express Premium to more users in India
Adobe has teamed up with Airtel to provide free access to Adobe Express Premium to Indian users. Speaking to India Today Tech, a senior Adobe official says the partnership is expected to give more users access to AI-enabled creative tools.
Adobe recently announced a partnership with Airtel, one of India’s largest telecom giants, to bring Adobe Express to more users in the country. Facing stiff challenge from cheaper AI-powered image and video editing tools, Adobe hopes offering Express for free will help it better consolidate its user base.
As part of the tie-up, Airtel customers are getting free access to Adobe Express Premium worth Rs 4,000 for 12 months through the Airtel Thanks app.
David Wadhwani, president, creativity and productivity business at Adobe, spoke to India Today Tech ahead of the formal announcement of the partnership and explained that by offering Express for free, the company hopes to bring AI-enabled image and video editing to a broader user base.
Wadhwani says Express has been available for about two years and many people already use it for quick photo and video editing, especially those who aren’t familiar with professional software like Premiere Pro or Photoshop. Now, with this partnership, Adobe aims to reach more users.
Wadhwani says, “We’ve brought the core capabilities of Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects into one easy-to-use app. It doesn’t replace professional tools, it complements them. All these tools co-exist within the Adobe ecosystem.”
He highlighted that many Indian users already use Adobe Express apps to create content. “For small and medium businesses, use cases include product photography, social media campaigns, flyers, posters and banners. Among students, adoption has been very strong. They are using Express for presentations, posters, assignments, projects and hobbies. They are also learning digital and AI creative skills through the app,” he says.
With this partnership, Adobe is now aiming to bring even more users to the platform and give them access to its creative tools. “This partnership gives us a huge opportunity to expand reach and adoption and more importantly, make creativity accessible to every Airtel customer in India,” says Wadhwani.
He also points out that this is not the first time Adobe has partnered with other platforms to expand Express. The company has previously offered accessibility by integrating Adobe Express with third-party platforms such as ChatGate, Slack, and Miro.
Interestingly, Adobe Express not only offers editing tools, but it also brings Adobe’s AI under the Firefly umbrella. According to Wadhwani, a premium subscription to Adobe Express includes access to all Adobe AI generation tools powered by Firefly. For Airtel users, this offer is available now. You can access it through My Airtel app. Express Premium includes paid templates, AI image generation, background removal, one-tap video editing, access to Adobe Stock assets, fonts, and cloud storage.
