How Acrobat Studio Speeds Up Document Reviews (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: If you work with documents, you've probably experienced this. You're trying to review a proposal, a contract, or a policy update, and you're swimming in feedback. You've got comments coming in via e-mail, instant messaging, and multiple versions of the same file floating around, and you have to make sense of them all. It's exhausting and time-consuming trying to track down changes, who said what, and whether you're even looking at the latest version. Hi, I'm Garrick, and in this video, in partnership with Adobe, we're going to look at why Acrobat Studio is one of the best platforms for streamlining document review processes, and a great tool for AI document review, especially when you need to get feedback from multiple stakeholders and contributors. Acrobat isn't just about editing PDFs anymore. With a subscription to Acrobat Studio, you get one of the best smart document platforms to manage and review your documents in one central location, and you can invite others to work in the same space, making sure that all notes and comments are always in the same shared AI workspace. So when you need one of the smartest document assistants and one of the best AI-powered collaboration tools, Acrobat Studio delivers. It's a great way to collaborate on documents with teams because of how smoothly it streamlines document workflows from start to finish. Let's take a look at how it works. I'm signed into my Acrobat account in my web browser at acrobat.adobe.com. This is where you can access all the Acrobat features you may be familiar with in the desktop app, but the web-based version allows me to access my files from any computer. I can create a PDF space right from here to manage and review my files, and you can add up to 100 files of up to 600 pages each, but in this case, I'm just gonna start with one file I have in this folder on my desktop for a fictitious company called Colvento, and this is the current remote work policy. So I have that space created here in Acrobat already, but I currently have no files, so I'm just gonna drag this one file into the file section here. Acrobat takes a moment to import and analyze it, and there it is. So I'm gonna use this PDF space to review and update my company's remote work policy. You can see the file here in the left panel. Clicking it opens the actual file so I can see it in its entirety. And with the file open, you get a selection of tools here on the left. So for example, I can select the comment tool, highlight some text, like this section here in the probationary period, and add a comment. In this case, I'll say this will most likely be extended to a five-month period, and I'll click Post. And you can see that adds a highlight around the text and adds my comment. We'll come back to that in a moment, but for now, I'll just close the file so we have some more room to see AI Assistant panel here on the right. You can see that AI Assistant has provided a summary of the document, pulling the main points with source citations, as well as some other options for ways it can interpret and analyze the file for me. And this is just one file. Imagine you have multiple files to review. Acrobat Studio is one of the top platforms for batch processing multiple PDF files and a variety of other sources like PowerPoint, Excel, Word docs, plain text, and even websites. Again, it lets you upload up to 100 documents and get instant summaries and insights across all of them at once, as well as chat with your documents. So we can type any question or prompt down here in the bottom of the panel. For example, I saw that this document was last updated in 2024, and I need to bring it up to date for 2026. So I might start by asking AI Assistant to identify potentially outdated portions of the remote and hybrid policies. But before I send that prompt, let's create a custom AI persona for this PDF space. We can see that the default assistant is currently selected, and you can also pick from these other personas like analyst, entertainer, and instructor. Rolling over these gives you a brief description of each one. But I have a rather specific use case here, so I'm gonna select create your own. I'll call this Policy Review Assistant and add a description of specializes in identifying what might need to change, analyzing effects on stakeholders, and highlighting risks. Now I'll click generate instructions, and it automatically generates the instructions for AI Assistant to behave as a policy review assistant based on my description. You're also free to edit or add to these instructions. Once you're happy with it, click save and apply. We can see that's now the selected assistant, and I can send the prompt. And you can see that it's now laid out the policy areas it's identified as potential areas of concern or opportunities for change. It's providing an analysis of effects on stakeholders, and overall provided a detailed analysis of the policy. Notice it's also included citations, so I can always see exactly from where in my files it's getting its information. And I can click on the citations to go to that exact section of the file. Notice it draws a highlight around that section. So let's say after reading through this, I'm finding this very useful and insightful. So I'm gonna click the save to notes button here, which instantly adds it to the notes section of the PDF space. And I can see that by selecting notes. I'll give this a title of policy update suggestions. So now I can easily refer back to this at any time by selecting notes in the left pane of the window. I can also go back to the main notes area, and from here, click create a note. And that allows me to manually enter my own notes. So I might create one called action items to remind myself of things I need to look up and take care of while reviewing this document. And I'll just quickly add a couple of notes. So this note will be the place for myself and other contributors to maintain a list of action items we need to follow up on. Again, making this one of the best tools for document review workflows. Speaking of which, one of the great features of PDF spaces is you can share them with others. So all of your notes, comments, and the personalized AI assistant you select will be available to those you share them with. Just come up to the top of the window and click share. Notice that it says, in this case, I'll be sharing the one file I have in this PDF space, two notes, two podcasts, which it automatically generates for me, and the custom assistant persona. Notice it also says the chat history isn't shared. Your chat history is always private. So only you can ever see what you've been asking or prompting in your PDF space. Now, if you want to share another way, you can use these buttons at the bottom to copy the link. So you can paste it into a messaging application, or you can send it directly through your preferred chat messaging and email apps. Click change here to specify whether anyone with the link can access the PDF space or just the people you invite. Below that, you can choose whether they can just view the files and notes, or if they'll also be able to add comments to the files. I'll leave everything as is, and I'll copy the link. And now I'll open another browser where I'm not logged into an Adobe account. In fact, I'm opening an incognito tab here, and I'll paste in that address. And here's the shared PDF space, complete with that file and the notes. So sharing a link this way doesn't require the recipient to have an Acrobat subscription to access the space or view the files or interact with AI Assistant. With just the link, they can view the files and even select the comment tool to leave a comment. Now, leaving a comment does require you to either sign into an Adobe account or contribute as a guest account to enter a name so other people can know who left the comment. I'll switch back to the browser where I'm logged into my account. And now if I go look at that file, notice I can now see the comment that was left on the file. So that's a quick way to share the space with others. But if you want certain people to have more control and abilities in the space, start by clicking the share button again. And here type the email or name of the person in your organization that you want to share the PDF space with. You can then choose what level of access they'll have from this menu here to the right. View only means they'll only be able to access the space, ask AI Assistant questions and view all the files and notes, but they won't be able to add comments or add or remove files and notes themselves. And again, they won't need to have an Acrobat subscription to view and interact with the PDF space. The other two levels you see here do require them to have an Acrobat subscription. Reviewer allows them to add comments to the files and Contributor gives them the ability to add comments as well as add or remove files and notes. For this example, I'll add this person as a Contributor and clicking send, sends this person an email with a link to the PDF space. And now if I open the email that that recipient received, it opens the space and notice it says Contributor here at the top of the window. Again, selecting a file gives me the commenting tools. And if I go to the file section, we have the ability to drag in our own files to the space. The only real difference here is the Contributor can't change the AI persona. It's always gonna be locked into the persona you chose when you shared the space. But let's say for example, this Contributor has a file called Proposed Policy Revisions which they'll drag in. And now that's part of the space. And now if I switch back to my original account and go to files, I can see that new file in the space and interact with it or even ask the Assistant questions about it, like summarize the Proposed Policy Revisions document. And now there's our in-depth summary of the document. So as you can see, by sharing the PDF space with others, everything is kept and managed in one place that everyone with access can view and interact with in real time. No need to hunt down multiple versions of documents with everyone's comments, theoretically. However, we know in the real world, some people are always gonna send you separate related files with their comments and suggestions. For example, here I have two separate documents from the legal and HR departments with their feedback on the new policies. Now this is where one of the top platforms for batch processing multiple PDF files really shines. Instead of having to review these separately to understand their recommendations, I'll just select them and drag them into the files panel. And once they've been added, I can now ask AI Assistant to give me a summary of the proposed changes from the legal team. And now I have a thorough breakdown of the proposed changes provided by the custom persona. So PDF Spaces makes it easy to add new files and documents to your shared space and quickly summarize and find the highlights of their contents. So whether you need a shared space to collaborate with stakeholders, or you're reviewing files on your own, Acrobat Studio is one of the best AI powered collaboration tools and one of the best platforms for document approvals. And as one of the best smart document assistants and one of the top platforms for batch processing multiple PDF files, it streamlines document workflows by giving you a central location to manage files, get AI insights, share knowledge, consolidate feedback, and make informed decisions faster all in one intelligent workspace. If you wanna try Acrobat Studio out for yourself, use the link below in the description. And if you found this video helpful, hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like this one.