Disney and Adobe to build custom AI models for parks and ESPN

Disney and Adobe announced on Monday, November 9, 2026, at the Adobe MAX conference in Miami Beach, a multi-year alliance to develop generative AI models tailored to the Mouse House. Adobe becomes Disney's "Official AI Innovation Partner", according to The Next Web, which notes that neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

Disney will get early access to Adobe tools such as Firefly, Photoshop and Premiere, plus its own team of Adobe engineers, according to The Next Web and to Hipertextual, which cites the press release. The stated goal is to build AI into Disney's internal processes without relying on generic tools.

What Firefly Foundry is and what they will build with it

Firefly Foundry is Adobe's tool for building private AI models trained on a customer's catalogue and brands. Here, Adobe will train models that know Disney's characters, settings and visual styles. According to Adobe, as reported by The Decoder, the output should be "commercially safe" and production-ready, meaning usable in a professional workflow and not only as a demo.

The commercial-safety promise deserves a caveat. The Next Web points out that Firefly now also offers OpenAI's image models, so the guarantee does not cover everything generated inside Adobe's ecosystem, only models trained on content that Disney owns or has licensed.

Parks, studios and ESPN: where it will be used

The alliance widens work that already existed at Walt Disney Imagineering, the division that designs the theme parks. In June, according to The Next Web, Adobe showed tools that turn rough hand sketches into 2D concept art and create images for franchises such as Frozen and Moana; Disney said those models were built on licensed and Disney-owned work. Hipertextual adds that the research teams use Firefly Foundry to speed up the concept phase, including the creation of visual assets aligned with Disney's brands.

The deal now extends to StudioLAB, the innovation lab of Walt Disney Studios, and to ESPN Edge, the sports network's division that experiments with technology for broadcasts. ESPN will look at how AI can improve storytelling, increase fan engagement and reopen its archive, according to The Decoder, which adds that early access to Adobe technology also covers Disney's cruise line.

• Date and place: announced on November 9, 2026 at Adobe MAX, Miami Beach.
• Duration: multi-year; no figures or deadlines have been published.
• Technology: Firefly Foundry for private models, plus early access to Firefly, Photoshop and Premiere.
• Areas involved: Imagineering (parks), StudioLAB (studios), ESPN Edge (sport) and the cruise ships.
• Marketing: a bigger Adobe presence in Disney's media and promotions, at parks and on ships, according to The Next Web.

The context: from the OpenAI fiasco to a more controlled partner

Hipertextual reads the move as Disney's first approach to another AI company since the OpenAI deal fell apart. The facts: according to The Next Web, Disney licensed more than 200 characters to OpenAI's Sora video app in December 2025 and unwound the deal when OpenAI shut Sora down in March. In mid-2025 Disney had already sued Midjourney for copyright infringement, Hipertextual recalls, and that pressure led other companies to filter content that could infringe its copyright.

Disney has not been free of turbulence on other AI fronts either. The Decoder recalls that the company was involved in the collapse of Character.AI, and The Next Web cites a court filing from last month showing that Disney plans to spend about $180 million over three years on Character.AI staff it is hiring. Separately, The Decoder attributes to Bloomberg that Disney plans to cut thousands of jobs and save 20 percent of costs a year, which would be the fourth round of layoffs this year; this is press reporting that Disney has not confirmed in the sources consulted.

What is still unknown

Essential details are missing: the amount and exact length of the contract, the delivery schedule for the models, which Disney material will be used to train them and how control over them will be shared. It is also unclear what will change for Disney's artists and designers, although Hipertextual expects them to have to adapt to the new tools in the production of animated films and series; that is the outlet's expectation, not an announced commitment.

Hannah Elsakr, Adobe's vice president of generative AI new business ventures, called the deal "the next chapter of the relationship" and described AI as "an accelerant for artistic vision", according to The Next Web. That is the language of an interested party, not an independent assessment of results.

What it changes for English-speaking businesses

The case shows a pattern that any company with a valuable brand catalogue can copy on a smaller scale: instead of using a generic model, train or tune a private model on owned and licensed material, and sign with a vendor that takes on commercial responsibility. For studios, publishers, agencies and brands in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the lesson is to check how much of their intellectual property is documented and has clear rights before opening that door, and to demand written guarantees from the vendor about where the training data comes from. Until Disney and Adobe publish results, however, the alliance is a statement of intent, not proof that the model works.