Examples of techniques for adaptive object recognition for a target visual domain given a generic machine learning model are provided. According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for adaptive object recognition for a target visual domain given a generic machine learning model includes creating, by a processing device, an adapted model and identifying classes of the target visual domain using the generic machine learning model. The method further includes creating, by the processing device, a domain-constrained machine learning model based at least in part on the generic machine learning model such that the domain-constrained machine learning model is restricted to recognize only the identified classes of the target visual domain. The method further includes computing, by the processing device, a recognition result based at least in part on combining predictions of the domain-constrained machine learning model and the adapted model.