I tried Adobe's $2 AI learning tool

Tech companies have packed AI tools into almost every app and gadget we use, from Facebook and TikTok to the best Macs. But most of the time, those tools aren't particularly helpful. So when I tried out Adobe's new Acrobat AI Assistant, I wasn't expecting anything special. Another AI that summarizes text? How useful can that be? But I was pleasantly surprised. It can help with exam prep by generating study guides, and also create presentations from thesis or research reports. It promises to help in seemingly unlimited ways.




The only thing that stopped me from recommending it was the $5 monthly subscription. However, Adobe recently dropped the price to $2 per month (for students and educators), and now that price could be a game-changer for students who regularly have to tackle a mountain of text.

It works wonders for summarizing documents

Imagine putting a large research paper on your laptop and Adobe AI in the document answering your questions instantly. This would save a huge amount of time not only for students, but also for researchers and anyone who works with documents on a regular basis. The reality is not quite so perfect, but the AI ​​tool is still handy, especially when you want to get a quick overview of a document.


I initially tested the tool with a 30-page research paper. The AI ​​assistant appears in the right sidebar of Adobe Acrobat Reader and automatically analyzes the document. After completing the analysis, the tool displays a summary of the paper and suggests further questions. I tried asking it various questions from the document, and while it was able to answer most of them, it repeatedly linked references to page numbers that did not match the actual page.

Screenshot of the summary function in the Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant


However, there is a lot to look forward to and I think this tool could actually be a game-changer. For example, when I asked the AI ​​assistant to summarize the key findings from the Results section, it provided me with the correct information and listed the results clearly and concisely. It also offered links that took me directly to the relevant sections, although the page numbers were slightly misaligned.

Adobe’s AI assistant can make presenting easier

Creating presentations can be one of the most daunting tasks for a student – I've experienced it myself and know how much I hated it. The Acrobat Assistant can make this task a little easier. I tried to create a presentation from a large research paper from my college days. After uploading the document into Acrobat Reader, the AI ​​Assistant took about 30 seconds to analyze it.


When I typed in the prompt “Help me create a presentation from this document,” it generated concise bullet points and neatly divided sections of the report into individual slides. Keep in mind that this report was about 40 pages long. My prompt was rather vague, but you can get more detailed answers by refining your prompts accordingly.

Screenshot of the query function in the AI ​​​​assistant of Adobe Acrobat


After the AI ​​displays a response to your query, you have several options to respond to it. At the bottom of the response, you can click the “copy” button to paste the response elsewhere, or you can provide feedback using the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icons to indicate whether you liked the response. If you find it inappropriate, you can also report it using a flag icon.

The AI ​​assistant can generate and format content for various purposes such as emails, blogs, and reports, while also providing citations. I tried it by turning my research report into a 500-word blog post, and it worked pretty well. By default, it uses a more formal tone, similar to a press release or marketing collateral, but I was able to tweak it by setting it to sound more casual and colloquial.


However, the Acrobat AI Assistant still needs to be improved

Like most AI tools on the market, Acrobat AI Assistant needs further optimization to be truly reliable. The citations it provides are unreliable and it tends to provide incorrect information at times. While it can handle basic summaries and data searches in PDFs, similar to a chatbot like Google Gemini or ChatGPT, it is fast, but there is still room for improvement.

The Acrobat AI Assistant is one of many AI features added to Adobe products. You can also explore other AI tools that can boost your productivity.

Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat AI Assistant

Adobe's AI learning partner

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