AI-built Adobe clones are not ready to cut SME software costs
In brief
According to InfoQ, Brandon Thomas published open-source replacements for seven Adobe applications, built with Claude Opus 5.5. He later told Hacker News the tools are not ready and will wait until after beta. The October roadmap estimates real-work readiness at about 45 percent, with 579 open issues and Photoshop files not yet reliably accepted by Adobe's software.
Source : InfoQ - « Developer Behind the AI-Built Adobe Clones Says They Are “Not Anywhere Close to Ready »
What it changes for an SME
For an SME of 10 to 250 people, this does not reduce Adobe costs or production time today. You should not move client files onto these clones: according to the project, 22 of 25 performance budgets are missed and the Photoshop files it writes are not yet reliably accepted by Adobe's software. A large codebase appeared in about two weeks, but users cited by InfoQ report missing basic tools and weak RAW support. Replacing paid creative software with AI-built alternatives remains a future option, not a current budget cut.
What you can do
- Keep your Adobe or equivalent licenses until an alternative has proven round-trip file exchange on your own documents.
- Ignore near-term parity claims and ask for a real-work readiness figure, not a count of menus and tools.
- If you trial an AI-built editor, test RAW files, PSD interchange and your usual layouts before any live job.
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