Adobe Firefly's Quick Cut uses AI to turn raw footage into a first draft in minutes

Adobe Firefly's video editor can now automatically create a first draft from footage

The video editor in Adobe Firefly is getting a new feature called Quick Cut that uses AI to edit footage and B-roll to create a first draft of the final video based on user instructions. Typically, you have to upload your footage and B-roll into a video editor, and manually arrange transitions. With Quick Cut, users can describe what they want the video to be in natural language, and the tool will automatically edit out irrelevant parts of the footage, and put together the different takes while using appropriate footage to make transitions between cuts. Users can also pick frames from the B-roll and use one of the video models available within Firefly to create short transitions. You can use the prompt box within the Firefly video editor to specify settings like aspect ratio and pacing between transitions, or add optional B-roll footage. Users can apply Quick Cut to the entire project, a particular timeline, or selected clips. Adobe stressed that the aim of Quick Cut is to deliver a first draft, so editors will still need to adjust elements, paste takes together, and work on transitions to put together the video. "As we talk to our users, who are creators and marketers, the biggest problem they actually communicate is the need for fast turnaround, the need for time-saving techniques that just let them get to their creative vision as fast as possible," Mike Folgner, product lead for AI and next-generation video tools, told TechCrunch. "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," he added. Adobe has been pushing regular updates to its video-related tools. In December, it rolled out a new timeline-based video editor that brought layers and prompt-based editing -- the editor treats different objects as layers and allows you to edit them using prompts, or use tools like resize and rotate. The company has also added prompt-based editing capabilities to Firefly, letting users tell the video model how to edit video elements, colors, and camera angles, as well as a timeline view that lets you adjust frames, sounds, and other characteristics easily.

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Sometimes the first draft is the hardest. Adobe wants its new AI video tool to make it easier to get your initial timeline set. Firefly video editor's new "Quick Cut" AI tool does exactly that -- it takes all your raw video footage and pops out a first rough cut. The AI tool is very dialogue-driven, so it's best for formatting reviews and interviews. In a demo, Adobe senior staff designer Dave Werner showed me how easy it is to use. He uploaded all the A-roll and B-roll footage he shot for a review of a new gaming handset, typed in a prompt asking Firefly to create a video review focusing on specific pros and cons and selected specs including the duration and aspect ratio. Two minutes later, he had a usable first cut of his review. This AI tool is in Firefly's beta video editor. If Premiere Pro is for experts, Firefly video editor is for everyone else, particularly social media creators who don't need the most detailed editing tools. You can gain access with a Firefly subscription, which starts at $10 per month. Quick Cut is available now globally. The goal with Quick Cut isn't to create a perfect video with AI; it's to cut out the "tedium" of creating the first draft, said Mike Folgner, senior director of product management at Adobe. You'll have to double-check the AI's work and add final touches, such as captions and titles, and smooth out the videos' rough edges. Creators may be OK with letting AI help with a first effort, but it's those final touches that are what make a creator's brand, he said. The new AI Quick Cut tool is very much in line with Adobe's broader AI strategy. Here's what to expect from Adobe's AI in 2026. Read More: AI Slop Is Destroying the Internet. These Are the People Fighting to Save It The Photoshop maker has been loading up its creative software programs with AI, but not just your typical image and video generators (though it have those, too). The company has been focused on AI editing tools for specific tasks, like AI-powered clip search in Premiere Pro. AI-powered creation continues to be a controversial subject in 2026. Many writers, artists and designers are concerned about how AI models are created, using their existing work potentially without their permission or compensation. And a growing number of AI image and video generators are flooding the internet with low-quality AI slop, with few solutions in place to slow or stop it. Adobe, for its part, has been insistent over the years that its AI won't lead to slop but will help creators do their jobs better. It plans to continue down the AI road, combining advanced AI models with Adobe's existing tools and workflows, Mike Polner, vice president of product marketing, told me at the beginning of 2026. "AI becomes most powerful when it's embedded in the tools creators already use to do real work," Polner said. The company certainly isn't slowing down on AI integration. In 2025, it added more than 10 outside, third-party models to Firefly, striking deals with OpenAI and Google for their top AIs. AI-positive creators are using these options regularly; an Adobe report found that 86% of creators are using AI daily in their work. Prompts are getting longer, Polner said, and creators are leaning into "more cinematic and minimalist styles, nostalgic textures like grain and halftone, and great emotional nuance overall." Some AI-positive creators said they select their AI model based on its "personality," or skills, like they would a camera lens or paintbrush.

Adobe's new AI video editing tool stitches clips into a first draft

Adobe is launching a new Firefly tool that helps video editors to focus on storytelling by creating a first cut to refine and build around. The Quick Cut feature is launching in beta today for Firefly's video editor, allowing users to automatically assemble clips together based on text prompts and simple creator inputs. "Quick Cut empowers creators to upload their own b-roll or generate new footage and instantly turn it into a structured first cut. Goodbye empty timeline. Hello momentum," Adobe's head of product marketing for creators, Mike Polner, said in the announcement. "It's a fast way to get from 'I have clips' to 'I have an edit I can work with.'" The goal is to remove some of the manual labor that's required to stitch together rough editing drafts, freeing up time that can be spent on improving narrative and more technical audio/visual refinements. Users can upload footage or generate AI clips, and describe how they want to assemble them, such as asking Firefly to cut together podcasts, interviews, and product reviews that specifically highlight key moments. The tool also allows users to make edits using a transcription timeline and control the specific aspect ratio and video length of the assembled draft. "There are some parts of video editing that really are tedious; they're not the creative part. We're interested in using generative AI and assistive AI to get you to the point where you can let your creativity shine," Mike Folgner, Adobe's senior director of product management told The Verge. "Our goal is remove tedium and give you something to react to, but give you full control from there." Adobe demonstrated the feature for me by piecing together clips of a gaming console controller review. The resulting Quick Cut video needed obvious refinement -- with Adobe stressing that this is not designed to spit out polished, finalized edits -- but it was surprisingly fast. What took the tool mere seconds would have likely taken far longer to piece together manually.

Adobe Firefly now uses AI to turn raw footage into a first-cut video - 9to5Mac

Adobe is rolling out Quick Cut in beta today, a new Firefly feature that uses AI to automatically assemble multiple uploaded or generated clips into a structured first edit. Here are the details. According to Adobe, once users upload their raw video to Firefly, they can click the new Quick Cut button and provide the platform with some context on what the video is about: a lengthy interview, a product demo, a podcast recording, a day-in-the-life vlog, and so on. In addition, they can include important information such as the desired aspect ratio and pacing, as well as upload or generate "an optional B-roll track to keep supporting footage organized". Quick Cut will then perform a first edit of the video and display the multi-track result, where creators can further tweak, edit, and iterate on the video right from Firefly before publishing. In a nutshell, the new feature works as a way to jumpstart the editing process, delivering a first-edit version for creators looking to streamline their editing workflow. Here's Adobe: We designed Quick Cut to give video creators a clear starting point they can shape, refine and make their own. It's a fast way to get from "I have clips" to "I have an edit I can work with." Swapping out hours stitching together clips for more time focusing on story, strategy and narrative can be invaluable. The company says that the new feature could be helpful to product reviewers, for instance, who can "upload long takes of unboxing and testing footage, and Quick Cut will follow the flow of their narration," or even reporters, who can use it to "identify key moments in their interviews". With today's beta release, Adobe also reminds users and creators that new sign-ups for Firefly Pro and Premium before March 16 will get "unlimited image and Firefly video generations up to 2K resolution in the Adobe Firefly app," including from third-party models such as Google's Nano Banana Pro, and Runway's Gen-4 Image.

Adobe Firefly can take your random clips and and stitch them together like an expert

Thanks to the latest Adobe Firefly update, you can spend less time dragging clips around and more time being creative. Adobe is slowly transforming its AI video and image generation platform into a proper AI video editing suite. A few months back, the company added a timeline view and text prompt editing to Firefly. With its latest update, Adobe has introduced a Quick Cut feature that allows users to upload their footage and automatically generate a clean first cut. Save hours of editing time with Quick Cut I'm a hobby video editor, and one of the most time-consuming parts of the process is creating an initial rough cut from hours of footage. The Quick Cut feature will handle this task for you, significantly reducing editing time. Recommended Videos Adobe gave several example use cases of how users can use Quick Cut to streamline their editing process. Product reviewers can upload their footage, and Firefly will give a rough cut of the video based on the audio narration. Podcasters and reporters can find key moments without sifting through hour-long interviews. These are but a few examples of how Quick Cut can help video creators supercharge their workflow. How to use Quick Cut Using Quick Cut is as simple as uploading your footage and providing Adobe Firefly with a text prompt that describes your video: whether it's an interview, demo, vlog, or recap. You can then ask Firefly to generate a first draft for you. Firefly will use your description and narration to create a first rough cut of the footage. For more control and precision, you can even add a script or provide follow-up text prompts to refine the cuts. If your footage is lacking, you can use Adobe Firefly's generative powers to create videos from photos and fill the gaps. What it means for video editors Adobe Firefly is not here to replace video editors; instead, it can empower them. Adobe has stated that Quick Cut and other Adobe Firefly features are designed for ideation, experimentation, and creating a first draft of the video. With AI handling the first pass, video editors can focus more on storytelling and the pacing of the video. It can reduce the monotonous work and give them more time to focus on creativity.