So, like many large tech companies, Adobe has been adding on various artificial intelligence features across most of their applications. Many of them are quite useful, such as the photo cleanup tools added to Photoshop, as well as the auto generation background for InDesign. I don’t begrudge any company for wanting to continue to make profits from the software services they provide. However, Adobe is doing something that is down right scummy. If you subscribe to their Creative Cloud plan choice, you will be automatically enrolled into their higher priced Creative Cloud Pro plan, this new plan is $120 more a year when billed yearly. Again, I have no problem with the addition of a “Pro” tier plan option, if you have a use and find value in the options available there, then that is the plan for you. My problem is Adobe not notifying the plan switch in any way or at least I can not find any notification with my account. There will be 1,000’s (100’s of thousands?) of accounts that get upgraded and those users may not even know. Users have the option to resume their non “Pro” plan but you have to log in to your account page at adobe.com and manually switch to the now Creative Cloud Standard plan.

I am a Graphics Manager for a small printing company and have use Adobe applications going on 35 years, hell I was even a beta tester for InDesign. My biggest complaint with Adobe is their lack of an à la carte choice for those users who don’t need all 20+ applications that are part of the Creative Cloud plans. I really only ever use the four Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop in our production workflows and have absolutely no need for the Audio and Video applications, as nice as they may be. Now they have given me a new complaint and this is pretty scummy on their part.

Adobe is switching some Creative Cloud users to a pricier AI plan article at The Verge has more details.