Anyone who does motion graphics knows the feeling: half your time doesn't go into animating, but into tidying up projects with hundreds of layers, renaming precomps called "Comp 1 copy 4" and working out why an expression inherited from a colleague throws an error. That's why, among the Adobe MAX announcements on November 10, the news that caught our attention most wasn't a flashy effect but the After Effects AI Assistant, the panel where you ask for things in plain words and the assistant carries them out inside your project.
Our take? A helper that cleans up the mess and explains expressions can save real hours, but there's a bill to read: the assistant uses generative credits, and the After Effects-only plan includes very few. We haven't put it to the test on a client project yet, so here you'll find what Adobe states, what the first tests show and where we think you should be careful.
| What it is | An AI assistant inside After Effects: it tidies up the project, writes and fixes expressions, edits text and shapes, generates images and video |
| Who made it | Adobe, with After Effects 27.0 (November 2026 release) |
| VRAM required | not stated: requests are processed in Adobe's cloud |
| Does it run on an RTX 3060 12 GB? | yes as far as the panel goes, because the AI work doesn't use the graphics card; you need Windows 11 or macOS 15 |
| License | beta feature included in the Creative Cloud subscription |
| Commercial use from Italy | yes, with a subscription; it's only available in countries where Adobe offers its creative AI services |
| Where to try it | After Effects 27.0: icon in the top bar or Window > AI Assistant |
| Free or paid | generative credits for most creative actions; 25 credits a month with the single-app plan |
What does the After Effects AI Assistant do?
It carries out multi-step tasks described in words, working on the whole project and not just the open composition. In the official 27.0 announcement Adobe lists four kinds of jobs:
- Project tidying: it explains how the project is built, restructures it, renames and color-codes items, moves them into folders or back to the root.
- Expressions: it explains them in plain words, writes them from a description, finds and explains errors, and renames layers and effects while updating the references, so the rig doesn't break.
- Text and shapes: it changes just part of a text layer and works with shape operators and dashes.
- Motion Graphics templates: it inspects Essential Graphics, exposes properties and media, renames controls and exports the template.
It can also generate images and video with Firefly and the other models Adobe supports. Expressions, if you don't use them every day, are short lines of JavaScript that animate a property on their own: for example, they make a layer wiggle or link it to a control. That's exactly where an assistant can shine, because writing them by hand means remembering precise syntax.
How many credits does the After Effects AI Assistant use?
Adobe doesn't publish a table: it says the assistant "uses credits for most AI-powered creative actions", such as generating and editing content, that the cost varies from one action to another and that you can see it by hovering over the credits icon once the job is done. The rates are described as "introductory" and may change. According to CG Channel, the After Effects-only plan includes 25 generative credits a month, enough for "an action or two".
Our advice is the same we gave for Photoshop Relight and its 30 credits per confirmation: before trusting it with a job, run a test on a throwaway project and watch how fast the counter drops. During the summer beta the assistant was free, with daily and weekly limits, but that phase is over and version 27.0 is tied to credits.
How do you turn it on in After Effects 27.0?
Open it from the assistant icon in the top bar, or from the Window > AI Assistant menu; the panel docks like any other. First update After Effects from the Creative Cloud app: you need Windows 11 or macOS 15 or later. If you work with a business or school account and the panel doesn't show up, it isn't a bug: on those plans access is off by default and the administrator has to enable it.
What limits should you know before using it for work?
The first limit is that it's still a beta feature: Adobe itself, on the Adobe MAX blog, calls it "AI Assistant (beta)". From the August beta program we also know a few useful things:
- it works best when you write in English; you can chat in other languages, but tool use has had problems there;
- it can write a script, but it doesn't run it: that's still up to you;
- undo goes back one action at a time, not a whole request, so save a version before big operations;
- Adobe says it doesn't train its models on your content; the assistant's "vision" looks at a single frame, and only when needed. If you work under an NDA, Adobe itself asks you to judge case by case.
The sources are the beta announcement on the Adobe forum from August 6 and the demo shown at IBC 2026 and reported by RedShark News. For a hands-on opinion, watch "After Effects Has an AI Assistant. Is It Any Good?" by SternFX and "I Tested the New AI Assistant Inside After Effects 2027" by Vlad Sateev.
What else is new in After Effects 27.0?
Quite a lot, and some of it without credits. According to the official list of new features, in the Advanced 3D renderer animated precomps, solids, images and videos become materials for 3D objects, and Substance materials can be applied to 3D text and shapes. Text imported from Illustrator arrives as an editable text layer, there's an Adobe Stock panel, the Contour Paint effect for a painterly look, the De-esser for harsh "s" sounds, a compression slider for PNG sequences and an auto-save that recovers your work better after a crash. If you're also thinking about upgrading your computer, our guide to the PC for After Effects has requirements and recommended builds.
Try it now
Take an old messy project, duplicate it and try this sequence, which is also the challenge Adobe proposes on its forum:
- Save a copy of the project under a new name.
- Ask in English: "Organize this project into named folders by type and explain what you changed".
- Select a property with an expression and ask it to explain it; then ask it to rename the layer the expression refers to, and check that the expression still works.
- After each step, hover over the credits icon and write down how much you spent.
If you only need to write a few expressions and don't want to burn credits, a general chatbot or a local language model does a good job: for text we often use models that run on our own PC, like Gemma 4 inside ComfyUI. They don't know your project the way Adobe's assistant does, but for a line of wiggle they're enough. For why we prefer local whenever possible, you'll find the full reasoning in our comparison local or online AI.
Other news
- Jensen Huang leaves NVIDIA: on November 12 the company announced that its founder had resigned, effective immediately, as chief executive and from the board. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, is interim CEO; quarterly results are still set for November 17. The announcement gives no reason. Source: NVIDIA announcement filed with the SEC.
- Alpha channel from video in ComfyUI: version 0.45.1 on November 10 brought the LTX Video VFX nodes, including AlphaGen, which extracts a transparency matte from a video without a green screen (up to 10 seconds and 4K), plus SDR to HDR, Reframe and Upscale. They're cloud nodes that use credits; a downloadable version for LTX-2.5 exists, but it calls for data-center cards. Source: ComfyUI documentation.
- llama.cpp reaches 1.0: on November 13 the engine that runs many language models locally reached version 1.0.0, with stable interfaces, a new web interface and a speech synthesis endpoint. Source: GitHub.
Frequently asked questions
Is the After Effects AI Assistant free?
Not entirely. It's included in the subscription, but most creative actions use generative credits, in different amounts depending on the action. The After Effects-only plan includes 25 a month; heavy use needs more credits. The rates are introductory and Adobe warns they may change.
Does it understand languages other than English?
You can write to it in other languages, but during the beta Adobe explained that it works best in English and that tool use had problems in other languages. For requests that change the project, such as organizing folders or renaming layers, you're better off writing in English, with short and precise sentences.
Do you need a powerful graphics card?
Not for the assistant: requests are processed on Adobe's servers, so the graphics card only matters for the rest of After Effects, such as previews and 3D renders. You do need an active connection, Windows 11 or macOS 15 or later, and After Effects updated to version 27.0.
Can I use it on client projects?
Yes, but with judgment. Adobe says it doesn't use your content to train its models and that the assistant sees a single frame when needed. If you've signed a non-disclosure agreement, though, Adobe itself asks you to judge case by case: when in doubt, ask the client before turning it on.
Interested in the AI that works alongside After Effects too, like Cinema 4D 2027 and AI relighting in After Effects? In the ComfyUI section you'll find our free workflows, and on the @tutorial3d YouTube channel our step-by-step tests.
