Adobe and OpenAI have just taken a big step in making professional creative tools more accessible to a wider audience. In late 2025, Adobe announced that Adobe Photoshop — along with Adobe Express and Acrobat — is now integrated directly into ChatGPT, meaning users can edit images, create graphics, and perform design tasks simply by having a conversation with the AI programme ChatGPT.
What was once software requiring training, licenses, and specific skills is now available inside a familiar, conversational interface. The integration is free to use (with a free Adobe account) and works across web and mobile ChatGPT, allowing anyone to bring creative ideas to life with natural language instructions.
At its core, this new feature allows you to edit and manipulate images using Adobe Photoshop tools from within a ChatGPT chat window. You can upload a photo and ask the system to perform real Photoshop edits — such as blurring backgrounds, adjusting brightness and contrast, or adding creative effects — without ever opening the full Photoshop app.
Unlike earlier AI tools that merely generated images from text, this integration leverages actual Photoshop functionality. For example, after uploading an artwork or photograph, a teacher or student could type:
- “Adobe Photoshop, increase the contrast and make the background softer.”
- “Remove the background and keep only the main subject.”
- “Add a graphic style filter to give this photo a hand-drawn look.”
Some implications for teachers:
For art teachers, this could be significant in various ways. It will enable them to create new kinds of teaching materials and resources easily and without the need for technical digital skills and access to professional software. Teachers will also need to be able to understand that some (older) students will have the same capacity to manipulate and experiment with digital images to generate images that, until a few months ago, the prerogative of those with a mastery of Photoshop. This provides students with both the opportunity for students to explore AI as they develop their ideas (which is allowed by Awarding Bodies – see ‘Exams: Rules and Options’. It also means that some students may be able to use AI imperceptibly and without acknowledgement. (which is not allowed by Awarding bodies).
The recent integration of Adobe Photoshop into ChatGPT offers art teachers a practical new way to create teaching and learning materials quickly and confidently. It reduces technical barriers and saves valuable preparation time. One of the most immediate benefits is the ability to generate tailored visual stimuli. A teacher might upload a photograph and ask ChatGPT (using Photoshop tools) to create several variations: high contrast, muted colour, cropped compositions, or altered lighting. These can be used as starting points for drawing tasks, annotation exercises, step-by-step visual demonstrations, or discussions about composition, mood, and visual hierarchy. Crucially, these images are not presented as “finished artworks”, but as prompts for learning: helping students understand visual decision-making.
Another valuable use is in differentiation and accessibility. Teachers can quickly adapt reference images to suit different learners — simplifying backgrounds, increasing contrast, or isolating forms to help students focus on specific visual elements. This could be particularly helpful in mixed-ability classrooms, where students may need different levels of visual support to access the same task.
Some implications for students:
There are opportunities for student idea development, when carefully framed. Students might use the tool to explore possibilities rather than outcomes — for instance, asking for multiple colour schemes for a poster idea, or visual variations on a photographic reference. This can support brainstorming, comparison, and evaluation skills. However, it is essential to be explicit: AI-generated images should not be submitted as final outcomes for GCSE or A-level examinations. Exam boards require evidence of students’ own practical work, and AI imagery should be positioned strictly as a developmental or exploratory aid, much like found images or mood boards.
However, teachers will be aware of the difficulties surrounding the use of AI by students. It is a new technology and schools will be developing AI guidelines which will govern the acceptable and safe use of AI by students. These guidelines are unlikely to have been drafted with an ‘art and design’ subject specific perspective. Despite government assertions that the UK should play a leading role in the evolution of AI the field of education is likely to err on the side of protecting students from AI rather than teaching them to use AI safely and well. The dangers of, and penalties for, plagiarism are considerable and may impact upon the teachers’ own professional career.
Art teachers in some schools will be developing practices which work through the implications of the Awarding Bodies declaration that students might use AI to ‘develop their ideas’.