The digital asset management (DAM) industry is rapidly expanding and is expected to surpass $6 billion in value by 2025. While major players like Dropbox and Google Drive once dominated the space, new challengers have emerged to claim their share.
With competition heating up, we set out to discover which features matter most to DAM users. To do this, we surveyed the Playbook community to identify the key trends shaping digital asset management. You can explore these insights in our "State of Creative Asset Management" report. Read on to discover the eight hottest digital asset management trends of 2024.
The 8 biggest digital asset management trends in 2024
1. The rise of visual browsing
One of the biggest frustrations with traditional cloud storage and digital asset management (DAM) systems has long been the lack of visual browsing capabilities.
Platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox rely heavily on a folder/subfolder structure — as one Playbook user put it, they’re “like your typical file explorer, but on the web.”
The result? Users often find themselves clicking through layers of directories or running multiple searches just to locate a file — wasting valuable time in the process.
As humans, we're naturally wired for visual engagement, making it much easier to identify files by sight rather than text. That’s why 83% of creative professionals prioritize visual browsing as a must-have feature in their DAM platform, as it allows for quick and intuitive file discovery.
2. Enhanced AI and automation
While the initial buzz around Gen-AI may be fading, it continues to unlock exciting possibilities in digital asset management, especially when it comes to managing creative assets. AI automations in DAM platforms can streamline tedious tasks like tagging, categorization, and facial recognition, all while making asset searches faster and more intuitive.
When you spend less time on repetitive, tedious tasks, you have more time to dedicate to enriching or meaningful work experiences. This increases productivity and helps keep you and your team happy and engaged at work.
Automating DAM processes can also help teams strengthen brand consistency — creating a better customer experience, fostering brand loyalty, and increasing sales.
Thayran Costa, a freelance graphic designer from Portugal, shares how Playbook’s AI-powered automation features have "improved our organization, agility, and management 100%." These AI-driven tools are proving invaluable for creatives looking to work smarter, not harder.
3. Prioritizing security and compliance
For creative professionals, who often work with sensitive files like branded assets or photos of individuals, security is a top concern. With the rise in security breaches — accelerated by advancements in AI — these concerns are more than justified.
This explains why 65% of our survey respondents highlighted security features — such as access and permissions, encryption, and two-factor authentication — as a critical feature in their DAM solution.
4. Increased focus on scalability
After creating your fifteenth free Google account for more storage, you begin to appreciate the importance of having a DAM system that scales with your needs.
We live in the era where content is king, and the number of assets businesses produce every year is on the rise, pointing to a need for scalable storage that can grow alongside your growing collection.
Creative professionals understand this better than anyone, and 67% of growing teams managing large asset libraries say scalability is essential in a DAM solution.
5. Integration with creative tools and platforms
Say you’re creating AI art in Stable Diffusion, incorporating it into a graphic design in Figma, and sharing it with collaborators via Slack. Integrations make your whole workflow smoother by eliminating the need to click constantly in and out of each program.
Increasingly, DAM users are looking for integrations between their DAM solution and the platforms they already use, with 67% of our survey participants highlighting integrations as an essential DAM feature.
6. The need for improved collaboration features
Whether you're recording a YouTube video, assembling a wedding photography album, or designing a new branded visual identity, you’ll likely need to share your work with colleagues, clients, or both.
That's why collaboration tools are a must-have in any DAM system. Features like shared boards, @-mentions, comments, emoji reactions, and one-click approvals have become highly sought-after, with 56% of creative professionals highlighting collaboration features as essential in their DAM platform.
7. Analytics and reporting for better decision-making
Tracking and analytics features allow you to assess the performance of various file types throughout their lifecycle, making it easier to identify high-performing assets, A/B test assets, and optimize your marketing efforts — all within a single software platform.
For example, marketing teams focus a lot of effort on content marketing as a way to generate inbound leads. In the past, they might have used a CMS to track asset performance, but with built-in analytics in their DAM platform, they can prioritize their best-performing assets so that other team members can easily access and replicate them.
8. Ease of use and intuitive interfaces
One of the most common complaints among users of DAM platforms like Adobe Experience Manager, Filecamp, and Brandfolder is their complex interfaces and steep learning curve.
Increasingly, DAM software users are looking for solutions that are easy to use — like artist Jennifer Palmer. “As a visual person, Playbook was the first thing I've seen that helps me manage assets visually, it's so much easier! And beautiful!” she says.
Book a demoStep into the future of digital asset management
In recent years, creative professionals like designers, artists, and marketers have begun demanding more from their DAM systems — from visual browsing and powerful search features to automations, integrations, and security.
One platform that’s at the cutting edge of digital asset management is Playbook, a DAM solution for creatives by creatives, with features that make storing, organizing, finding, and sharing your files easier than ever before.
Artists, creators, and marketers get 4TB of lifetime storage absolutely free. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and be part of the future of digital asset management.