After Effects AI Assistant: What It Can Do (and When You Don't Need AE)

We haven't run After Effects 27.0 for this article. Everything below about the Assistant comes from Adobe's own documentation and announcement, linked where it is used. The two animations near the end were made with iArt, and we say how.

What the After Effects AI Assistant is

It is a panel in After Effects where you describe a task in plain language and the Assistant carries it out in your project. Adobe's After Effects 27.0 announcement puts it in one line: "Describe what you need in the new Assistant panel, and let it organize your project, write and fix expressions, generate images and videos, and more." It is part of Adobe's wider Creative Agent; Adobe's November 10 press release says these AI Assistants "are available in beta" in its flagship desktop apps.

To open it, click the AI Assistant icon in the header bar or choose Window > AI Assistant. It is a normal panel, so you can dock it next to your timeline.

What it can do

Adobe's AI Assistant overview lists its current abilities. Grouped:

• Organize projects: explain, restructure, rename or color-code project items; review layers, compositions and folders and suggest a cleaner arrangement; move items into folders or back to the root.
• Compositions: open existing ones, and create new ones.
• Text and shape layers: change part of a text layer without retyping it, edit ranges of text, add or reorder shape operators, edit stroke dashes.
• Motion Graphics templates: inspect Essential Graphics, expose properties and media, rename controls, and export the template.
• Expressions: read an expression back in plain language, write one from a description, find and explain errors, and rename layers or effects while updating the expressions that point to them. It can also adjust keyframe interpolation.
• Generate images and video: footage, reference images or design elements with Adobe Firefly, and video from text or reference images with Firefly and partner models, added straight to the project.
• Render: render a composition to the project folder.

The AI Assistant FAQ adds that it "can create layers and keyframes, write and edit expressions, add effects, and more, but only based on your direct instructions", and that if you ask for something it can't do, "it will instruct you on how to accomplish your task manually."

How it behaves in your project

• It asks first. By default the Assistant asks before each action, such as applying a change or generating an asset. You can switch it to approve automatically.
• Undo is per step. Adobe's how-to page notes that Edit > Undo "steps through one change at a time, rather than the whole request at once."
• Example requests from Adobe: "rename these layers by what they show", "color-code my compositions by type", "write an expression that loops this animation", "why is this expression throwing an error?"
• Language and regions: it replies in the language you write in, and only appears in regions where Adobe's Creative AI services are available. For enterprise accounts it is off until an admin grants access.
• Your files: Adobe says user content is not used to train generative models, and that the Assistant won't look outside your project folder without permission.

Credits and commercial use

Adobe doesn't publish a per-action price on the help pages. Its wording is that the Assistant "uses credits for most AI-powered creative actions, such as generating and editing content", that usage varies by action, and that "credit rates are introductory and may change." After an action runs, hover over the credits icon to see what it used.

For generated images and video, the Assistant picks between Firefly and partner models unless you name one. Adobe considers Firefly outputs safe for commercial use; for partner models, it says you are responsible for deciding whether the model suits your project.

Custom skills: teach it how you work

You can give the Assistant your own house rules as skills. Each skill is a SKILL.md file in its own folder, and you call it by typing /skill-name in the prompt box, according to Adobe's custom skill guide. Adobe's starter files include a /spellcheck skill that proofreads text layers and a /preflight skill that checks a project before rendering: frame rates, missing media and fonts, broken expressions.

What about MCP, Claude and other agents?

Adobe also previewed local MCP integrations that will let you point your own third-party agent at After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere, with the agent editing native project files on your computer. Per the press release, these "will be available in private beta in early 2027", so they aren't something you can install today. Community-built MCP servers for After Effects already exist on GitHub; they are not from Adobe, and they change project files directly, so work on a copy.

When you don't need After Effects at all

The Assistant speeds up work inside an After Effects project. If what you actually need is the finished animation, such as a logo sting, a title or a number that counts up, there is a shorter route: describe it and get the video. That is what iArt does. Both examples below are the kind of motion you would normally build in After Effects with keyframes and expressions (an overshoot and a loop; a counter). Each came from one written description.

Example 1: a logo reveal with overshoot that loops

In After Effects this is keyframes plus an overshoot expression and a loop expression. Here it is one prompt, with our real logo attached as an SVG:

Animate our logo, attached as /uploads/iart-logo.svg, as a 6-second logo reveal that loops seamlessly.

The mark drops in from above with a springy overshoot (it dips past its resting point, bounces back once, and settles). Then the wordmark "iArt.ai" slides out from behind the mark to its right, and a short accent underline draws under the wordmark. After it settles, a slow, gentle breathing scale (about 2%) runs so the last frame matches the first and it loops without a jump.

Style: off-white #F5F5F2 background, mark and wordmark in ink #161616, the underline in #EC431B. Font: Inter Tight, semibold. Centered, generous space around it. 16:9. No narration.

Try this prompt in iArt → (attach your own logo SVG)

Example 2: a number that counts up

The classic expression job: a counter that eases into its final value with a bar that fills in sync. The number is real: the iart-ai/motion-skills repository lists 56 skills.

Make an 8-second stat card for LinkedIn. Square 1:1.

A large number counts up from 0 to 56 with an ease-out, fast at first and slowing as it reaches 56, so the last few numbers tick over one by one. While it counts, a thin horizontal bar under it fills from left to right in sync with the number. When the count lands, the label "open-source motion skills" types in under the bar, letter by letter, and a small line "github.com/iart-ai/motion-skills" fades in at the bottom. Hold the final frame for 2 seconds.

Style: off-white #F4F1EA background, ink #111111, the bar in #3FB950. The number in Space Grotesk, very large (it should fill about half the width). The label in Inter, the URL line in JetBrains Mono. No narration.

The first draft cut off the top of the number while it counted. We sent one message back:

While it counts (the first 3 seconds) the top of the number is cut off by the top edge of the frame, and the whole layout jumps down when the label appears.

Try this prompt in iArt →

Both examples were made with Claude Opus 5.5 running iArt's Animation agent. The Try links open iArt on DeepSeek, a lower-cost model; you can switch the model in the composer. iArt exports a finished video (MP4, or a transparent WebM for overlays), not an editable After Effects project.

Which should you use?

If you already live in After Effects, the Assistant is worth turning on for the chores: tidying, renaming and expressions. If you don't, and the job is a short piece of motion for a video, a stream or a post, see our After Effects alternative page or the list of free After Effects alternatives we tested.

FAQ

Is the After Effects AI Assistant free?

It comes with After Effects 27.0, but Adobe says it "uses credits for most AI-powered creative actions, such as generating and editing content", that usage varies by action, and that the credit rates are introductory and may change. You can see what an action cost by hovering over the credits icon after it runs.

Is the After Effects AI Assistant in beta?

Adobe's November 10, 2026 announcement says AI Assistants powered by the Adobe Creative Agent are available in beta in its flagship desktop apps, which include After Effects.

Can the AI Assistant animate for me?

Adobe says it can create layers and keyframes, write and edit expressions and add effects, based on the instructions you type, and that if you ask for something it cannot do, it explains how to do it by hand. We have not tested how far one request gets you on a full animation.

Can Claude or ChatGPT control After Effects?

Adobe previewed local MCP integrations that let third-party agents work in After Effects projects on your computer, with a private beta planned for early 2027. Community-built MCP servers for After Effects exist on GitHub today; they are unofficial, so back up projects before trying one.

Does it work in other languages?

Yes. Adobe says the Assistant replies in the language you write your prompt in. It only appears in regions where Adobe's Creative AI services are available.

Can iArt export an After Effects project?

No. iArt exports a finished video: MP4, or a transparent WebM for overlays. If you or a client need an editable .aep file, build it in After Effects.