Disney and Adobe ink deal to build private AI models for parks and ESPN

The multi-year deal, announced Monday, kicks off inside Disney's Experiences division — the arm that runs its global theme parks, resorts and cruise lines — where the goal is speeding up project development timelines. It also lands at StudioLAB, the innovation hub inside Walt Disney Studios, for concept exploration.

Adobe will separately work with Disney on AI tools aimed at boosting fan engagement at ESPN and pulling more of the network's content archive out to audiences.

The two companies will build the models through Adobe's Firefly Foundry, which lets enterprises create and deploy custom AI systems. Trained on Disney's intellectual properties, the gen-AI models are designed to churn out production-ready outputs, and they stay private and proprietary to Disney.

Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative and R&D arm behind Disney Experiences, has already put two of them to work: a custom image generation model and a sketch-to-image model that turns hand-drawn sketches into fully rendered concept art.

Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president of R&D technology and engineering at Disney, said the speed change is dramatic. Projects normally planned in years' worth of development now compress work that took months into hours and days, he said in an interview. The tools let teams run through multiple iterations quickly, cutting costly changes once construction starts, and Laughlin stressed they are 'in no way meant to replace' roles at Imagineering.

The AI push lands alongside cost pressure at Disney. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported the company was considering cutting thousands of jobs and had asked some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings.