Workday unleashes ‘digital colleagues’ while Adobe takes on Hollywood

Software titan Adobe has unleashed the world’s first commercial safe AI video generator while Workday has launched digital colleagues that will ‘peacefully coexist with humans’.

Workday chief executive Carl Eschenbach says: ‘We are in the midst of the largest tectonic shift we’ve ever experienced in our lifetimes, maybe ever in the world’.

Artificial intelligence is set to transform the way we work and play this year. The technology is finally delivering ‘digital colleagues’ and revolutionising Hollywood in what a top Silicon Valley executive has branded the “largest tectonic shift in our lifetimes”.

Graphic design software titan Adobe has unleashed the world’s first “commercial safe” AI video generator, and is already in talks with film and advertisement directors about using the tool.

Human resource behemoth Workday has launched a new system to manage AI agents, or “digital labour”.

“We are in the midst of the largest tectonic shift we’ve ever experienced in our lifetimes, maybe ever in the world. This is truly an AI revolution here at Workday,” chief executive Carl Eschenbach said.

“We leverage Gen AI to help accelerate employees and what they’re doing. We also have copilots to assist them in their daily tasks, but to truly achieve the transformation part of our work day … strategy it must be done by using agents.

“We believe these agents will peacefully coexist with humans to drive a step function chain in productivity. And these agents need to evolve today.”

An image generated by Adobe Firefly.

Workday’s ‘Agent System of Record’ is not about “just automating simple tasks any longer”. It has introduced four new role agents across knowledge work, payroll, contracts and financial auditing.

“They are role based, and they will be equipped with domain specific knowledge and expertise, really powering AI skills that enable contextual understanding and decision making,” chief product officer David Somers said.

“So whether you’re in HR or finance or your business leader, these role based agents will revolutionise how you and your teams work. And since we know these agents will collaborate more and more with humans in the modern organisation, then we also know that a single system of record to manage this new hybrid workforce is truly necessary.”

Atlassian is also betting big on agents, introducing Rovo last year. Chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes said Rovo allows companies to build their own AI agents — capable of performing thousands of basic tasks in the background.

Mr Cannon-Brookes said a “teamwork graph” was Rovo’s “secret sauce”, “unlocking a comprehensive view of your organisation’s goals, knowledge, teams, and work”.

Adobe’s Firefly now comes with ‘commercial safe’ video generation.

Adobe has released its Firefly video model which can produce AI generated clips which are “IP friendly”. The tool can create camera angles and photorealistic content with five simple verbal prompts.

Adobe vice president of generative AI Alexandru Costin said Firefly was designed to assist, not replace filmmakers and other content creators, with the program still needing some knowledge of the craft to make it work.

Clips are also in 1080p resolution and limited to five seconds — the sweet spot to create a particular shot which would have otherwise been created using expensive visual effects.

“It can also be used in pre-production, pitch visualisation, etc, and is designed to create, understand complex prompts and create high quality videos,” Mr Costin said.

“Another thing we’re doing that’s different maybe from other models is we’re focusing on giving our creative professionals more controls.”