Just launched, this first-of-its-kind Adobe–LinkedIn initiative equips marketers worldwide with the AI skills to grow their careers and lead organizations. Grounded in LinkedIn Economic Graph data rather than guesswork, the curriculum maps to what marketers want now. It debuts at Cannes Lions 2026 with four role-based courses in 47 languages, free on LinkedIn Learning, accessible in the LinkedIn feed, and Adobe Experience League. Read the press release here (ADD URL).
Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration and Enterprise business, sat down (virtually) with Jessica Jensen, CMO of LinkedIn, to discuss it.
Rachel Thornton · CMO, Adobe Enterprise
Jessica, LinkedIn has one of the richest views of the global workforce anywhere. So, let me start there: what is your Economic Graph data telling us about marketers and AI?
Jessica Jensen · CMO, LinkedIn
Our data is crystal clear: AI is one of marketers’ top focuses today. And it should be! Demand for AI skills has dramatically increased, with marketing job postings requiring AI literacy having more than doubled year-over-year, up 113%.
All of us need to be building new skills for the future of marketing. Yet only 4% of marketers around the world have added AI skills to their profiles, while product management (12%) and engineering (12%) are much higher.
This gap isn’t a reflection of marketers not wanting to lean into AI. It’s that training built for marketers hasn’t existed at scale.
Rachel Thornton
That 4% really stays with me. What AI skills are marketers focused on building today?
Jessica Jensen
I'd say two big things. The first is becoming experts at AI tools like Claude, Copilot, Gemini, etc. And the second is general AI literacy skills – building agents, designing AI workflows and creating AI-powered content.
One split we’re seeing is that marketing practitioners are most interested in building skills around specific tools, while director-level decision makers are focused on AI strategy, scaling LLMs, and organization-wide productivity. Both audiences need support, and this is exactly why we partnered with Adobe on this program.
Rachel Thornton
If the appetite is that strong, why hasn’t the training market met it?
Jessica Jensen
Most AI training wasn’t built for marketers — it’s either too tech-y, made for developers and data scientists, or it’s too broad, like for general audiences. Marketers need AI training mapped to their specific roles and workflows, like AI for content creation, campaign optimization, data analysis, etc. These are the areas marketers spend their days in, and that’s the gap we’re filling together with our AI skills initiative.
Jessica Jensen
So let me turn it back to you, Rachel. Why is Adobe the right company to build an AI curriculum for marketers?
Rachel Thornton
Because we’ve been at the center of every wave of marketing and creative transformation — desktop publishing, digital media, web, mobile, social, now AI. And it’s not theoretical: 99% of Fortune 100 companies use AI in an Adobe application today. We’re powering AI in marketing at scale. But technology alone isn’t enough. The real power is putting great tools in capable hands. That’s been our education commitment for decades — from the Adobe Digital Academy to Experience League, serving 4 million learners a year across 30,000-plus assets.
Jessica Jensen
We both believe AI isn’t “just another tool.” What makes it different for marketers?
Rachel Thornton
AI isn’t something you bolt onto the stack. It’s changing what creativity, marketing, and strategy mean, and the marketer’s relationship with their audience. Marketers are eager but need the right skills to embrace it confidently. They don’t want a generic intro course; they want to know how AI helps a content creator, a performance marketer, someone running a campaign from brief to launch. That’s the only training that changes behavior: not just mastering tools, but reimagining creativity, strategy, and customer relationships for an AI-powered era.
Jessica Jensen
I loved seeing our teams come together to design the curriculum. Can you share more about how it was developed?
Rachel Thornton
Around one question: what does this marketer do daily, and how can AI make them better at it? We’re launching four role-based courses for the largest marketer groups — Digital Marketing; Content & Creative; Social & Communications; and Data & Analytics — built on real workflows. The skills span AI-powered content creation, audience targeting, campaign optimization, and bringing data into agentic workflows, all grounded in Adobe’s and LinkedIn’s research. And format matters: short-form, social-first bites. Not a 40-hour course you clear your calendar for, but a five-minute tutorial before your next meeting.
Jessica Jensen
And the part I love most. Let’s talk about access.
Rachel Thornton
It’s free for the first 12 months and open to every marketer, not just Adobe customers. Our belief is simple: raising the whole profession’s skill level helps everyone. Marketers who complete courses earn LinkedIn Learning certificates for their profiles, and we’re extending free product trials, so those lacking access today can still get hands-on.
Jessica Jensen
And this isn’t a one-time drop. AI is moving fast, and so are we. We’ll release new content all year to keep the curriculum current. It’s a living program.
Rachel Thornton
And we’re building real community around it, because AI learning doesn’t only happen inside a course. It happens when practitioners share what’s working and push each other forward.
Jessica Jensen
If there’s one shared conviction underneath all this, what is it for you?
Rachel Thornton
That the shift to AI in marketing isn’t a disruption to manage — it’s an opportunity to embrace. Every marketer deserves the skills to lead now, not just those at the biggest companies.
Jessica Jensen
Agreed. That’s what this initiative is. An investment in our entire profession and an open invite to every marketer to upskill and reskill.
The Initiative at a Glance
- 4 role-based courses at launch — available in 47 languages, with more to come.
- Free to marketers worldwide.
- AI skills are the #1 area of focus for marketers (LinkedIn Economic Graph data).
- Only 4% of marketers have added AI skills to their profiles — versus 12%+ for engineering and product management.
- AI skill growth in the past 6 months: up +30% among marketers.
Launching at Cannes Lions 2026 across LinkedIn Learning, the LinkedIn feed, and Adobe Experience League.
Rachel Thornton is Adobe’s chief marketing officer for the enterprise business, helping organizations deliver exceptional customer experiences at the intersection of marketing, creativity, and AI. She leads strategies and activations that position Adobe as the leading marketing and AI platform, while energizing and empowering CMOs and experience makers worldwide.
