Photoshop 28 adds Relight and says AI agents will be able to run it in 2027

What Adobe shipped

Adobe has released Photoshop 28.0, and as Basic Tutorials reported, the update has been available through the Creative Cloud app since November 10, 2026. The headline feature is Relight, an AI tool for changing the lighting of a photo after it was taken. It had been in the Photoshop beta since late September and now sits in the regular desktop version.

Alongside it come Generative Restyle, Quick Compare, and faster opening and saving of large PSD and PSB files (Photoshop's native formats for layered images). The Remove tool has also been improved so it can erase a shadow and a reflection in one pass.

The bigger story for the long term is a plan, not a feature. Adobe says outside AI agents will be able to operate its apps directly, starting in early 2027.

How Relight works, and where it falls short

Relight strips out the light already in a photo and uses generative AI to build new lighting in its place. You can place up to three virtual lights and adjust the position, color, intensity and spread of each one right on the canvas. The result lands on its own Relight layer, so the original image is untouched.

During the beta, each use cost 30 generative credits, the usage units Adobe charges for its AI features. Adobe's announcement does not say whether that cost stays the same now that the tool is final. Adobe's community team has also confirmed that Relight works with actions and scripting, which means it can be built into repeatable workflows.

Testers report some limits. It does best with clear subjects such as people or interiors, and it only considers the active layer. In portraits it sometimes changes facial features that were meant to stay as they were, and fine detail like hair can look softer when zoomed to 100%. Still, for anyone who used to paint light by hand with dodging and burning, it can save a lot of manual work.

The MCP plan: agents on your own machine

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets AI assistants plug into other software. Anthropic introduced it in 2024, and Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor are among the tools that now support it. In a blog post on Creative Cloud updates, Adobe previews a version where you work in your preferred AI tool and the agent opens Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere or After Effects when it needs them.

Adobe says this will run locally and that project files will keep their layers and stay editable. Its examples include removing a logo from every asset in a campaign, or pulling briefs from a Google Doc and carrying them out in Adobe apps, then sending the results on through Slack. It is due for Creative Cloud customers in early 2027.

Adobe has not said which agents will be supported. Because MCP is widely adopted, the list is likely to be broad, though that is an inference rather than an announcement.

How this differs from today's connectors

Adobe already offers official connectors for ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot. They let you do things like remove a background or edit a photo through chat. But they run in Adobe's cloud and hand back finished files, so your desktop apps are not involved.

Illustrator also has an MCP server in beta that can connect to Cursor, Claude Code or Codex CLI. The planned integration goes further by reaching the programs installed on your computer and your real project files. For people who work with multi-layer PSDs, templates and their own assets, that is the more useful arrangement.

Adobe also announced updates across Creative Cloud. Premiere gets a generally available Color Mode, plus Generative Media with Firefly or partner models from Google, Kling, Runway and Luma. Lightroom gains new glow effects, InDesign adds co-editing in public beta, and an agent-based AI Assistant is coming in beta to several apps.

What is still unclear

Some details are easy to mix up. Generative Recompose, which rearranges image content for different formats, is sometimes listed as a Photoshop 28 feature, but Adobe's own blog places it only in the separate Photoshop Beta app. Generative Upscale is not new either, since it has been around since Photoshop 2026. If you prefer a stable version, the current long-term-support release of Photoshop 2026 is 27.11.1.

On the MCP side, the open questions are practical. Adobe has not said which agents it will support or what the integration will cost, and it has not explained how it will handle privacy when an outside agent opens local project files. It has also announced no changes to Creative Cloud subscriptions.

That last point matters because the agent feature is more than a year out and details may change. Until it arrives, the sensible habit is the one that applies to any agent connection: know what the agent can read and change before you point it at client work.