Adobe will provide more than 27 million eligible people in Saudi Arabia with a year of free access to some of its artificial intelligence tools under an expanded partnership valued at more than $4bn.

The US software company said the agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and government-backed AI company Humain will give eligible citizens and residents access to Adobe Firefly Standard and premium features in Adobe Express.

The programme is due to begin rolling out by the end of 2026.

As part of the initiative, Adobe and Humain are developing an image-generation model tailored to Saudi culture. The companies say it will support Arabic-language prompts and produce images designed to reflect local cultural characteristics.

Humain is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and has become part of the kingdom’s broader effort to develop domestic AI capabilities and Arabic-language technology.

Adobe and Humain announced their initial partnership in November, focusing on technology for generating Arabic content and serving the wider Middle East market. The latest agreement significantly expands the potential audience for those tools.

For Adobe, widespread free access could help attract new users to Firefly and other AI products as competition intensifies across the generative-AI design market.

Traditional software companies are facing increasing pressure from newer AI-focused services that can generate images, videos and other creative material within seconds. Adobe has responded by integrating generative AI across its established creative-software portfolio.

The Saudi agreement gives the company an unusually large potential user base while also strengthening its position in the fast-growing Middle Eastern AI market.