More companies are restricting employee use of AI tools after widely rolling them out, citing rising costs. Amazon, Walmart, Cisco, Uber and Meta are setting usage limits, curbing waste and steering staff to cheaper models as AI agents drive higher computing demand. Interest in low-cost models is growing, with surveys showing Chinese models leading U.S. rivals in token usage. Anthropic opened a Seoul office and OpenAI expanded activities in Korea, including an MOU on AI safety.

Adobe has strengthened its Firefly AI assistant and added it to Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign and Frame.io, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday. The update adds features to create brand kits, product videos and storyboards. Firefly can generate a brand kit automatically from a description or uploaded materials. Premiere gains tools to organise assets, rename clips in bulk and add markers for interview questions, while Illustrator can reorganise layers and check missing fonts.