At its annual Summit in Las Vegas this week, Adobe launched a suite of product innovations in the era of agentic AI which drive customer experience and internal efficiencies.
B&T sat down with Katrina Troughton, vice president & managing director, Adobe, ANZ in Sin City to discuss AI adoption Down Under, how she sees roles and responsibilities changing within marketing teams and agencies on the back of the tech and why diversity is more important than ever.
Adobe’s research within its 2025 AI and Digital Trends report shows that two-thirds of organisations globally are piloting or using generative AI in some way in their marketing and CX operations.
“We see customers at all different phases,” said Troughton of AI adoption in Australia.
“Some have done amazing work around really understanding the policies they’ve got around AI, understanding guardrails and helping their employees to use the tools. Others are earlier in that journey. Australians are digitally savvy and willing to try new things. I think that we have to continue to create environments that enable people to learn.”
Troughton recognised that one of the challenges for adopting AI technology throughout large organisations is managing change—not only from an individual perspective but also on an organisational level.
“It’s not actually just about individuals and their ability, it’s also about having the right legal environment, social contract and understanding around policies. Providing these guardrails allows people to really drive change,” she explained.
Troughton said marketing teams using Adobe’s full suite will rapidly find new efficiencies using its agentic AI tools. This evolution will lead to a change in roles and responsibilities for marketers.
“Every big technology change has caused us to redesign roles for success. Agentic AI will allow marketers to focus on the outcomes. They can enable the technology to support them to do that faster, better and more effectively,” said Troughton.
As well as marketing teams transforming due to AI capabilities, the role and behaviour of agencies will also adjust.
“Agencies have continued to reconfigure their services based on who their client is and what the requirement is,” added Troughton.
“Some of our first adopters for AI have been the agencies themselves such as Publicis, Accenture and Monks.’
Publicis and Adobe announced at the Summit that they would expand their global strategic partnership, integrating Adobe’s Firefly generative AI across the French holdco’s operations.
Monks—formerly Media.Monks—has also been vocal about its use of Adobe’s products with Tim Goodman, the agency’s chief technology officer writing that “GenStudio for Performance Marketing embodies a genuine shift in Marketing Operations. It is still early, and the gen AI platform will evolve quickly, but it is refreshing to see Adobe’s investment prepared for the next stage in the GenAI journey.”
B&T couldn’t leave our sit down with Troughton without also discussing her Executive Leader win at 2024’s Women Leading Tech Awards and her fourth-placed finish in the Women Leading Tech Power List.
When asked about how we can continue to encourage girls to enter the tech sector, Troughton said “I think the challenge girls have had is thinking ‘I’m not technical’. AI is really exciting because the technology focuses on what you are trying to achieve and the business outcome. It is all about imagining what you can do and allowing agentic AI to help you do it,” she said.
“AI will help change the stigma around saying ‘tech isn’t for me’ and get people focused on what matters—the outcome.”
