Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy as its next chief executive on Thursday, charging the insider with steering the design software maker through a wave of AI competitors threatening its core products.
Shantanu Narayen, who has served as CEO for over 18 years, will transition to executive chair. The change takes effect December 1, 2026. Adobe also said its Q3 FY2026 earnings call is scheduled for September 10, which will be the first earnings report under the new leadership structure.
The Challenge Ahead
Chakravarthy takes the job at a difficult moment. Adobe shares have fallen about 18% this year after declining over 21% in 2025, driven by investor concern that AI-powered tools from startups and Big Tech could undercut Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro.
The company has tried to address those worries by integrating AI into its products. Adobe’s Firefly image generator and various AI-powered editing features have shipped across Creative Cloud, but the stock has not recovered. Investors remain skeptical that incumbents can match the pace of AI-native tools that have emerged since 2023.
The pressure is not theoretical. Startups like Midjourney and Ideogram have built dedicated AI image generation platforms with tens of millions of users. Canva has added AI design features at a fraction of Adobe’s price point, making professional-looking graphics accessible to non-designers for the first time. OpenAI’s DALL-E and Google’s Gemini offer image generation through chat interfaces that bypass traditional design workflows entirely. Each of these tools chips away at Adobe’s dominance in creative software.
Adobe has responded by positioning its AI features as professional-grade tools that integrate into existing workflows, rather than standalone generators. Firefly is trained only on licensed and public domain content, a distinction Adobe emphasizes to contrast with competitors whose training data sources remain legally contested. The bet is that enterprise customers, in particular, will pay a premium for tools with clear intellectual property provenance and compliance guarantees.
The company has also expanded into new markets under Narayen’s watch. Adobe Experience Platform, the backbone of its digital experience business, serves thousands of enterprise clients managing customer data and marketing automation. This business unit, which Chakravarthy built from the ground up, has become an increasingly important revenue stream even as Creative Cloud faces competitive pressure.
Who Is Anil Chakravarthy
Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 to lead its Digital Experience business after serving as CEO of cloud data-management company Informatica for four years. He later took on worldwide field operations and oversaw the launch of products like CX Enterprise Coworker.
His background in enterprise software, rather than creative tools, may signal where Adobe plans to focus its next phase of growth. The Digital Experience business, which includes Adobe Experience Platform, targets marketing and customer experience teams at large corporations. It has been a growth engine for Adobe, though it receives less public attention than Creative Cloud.
I’m energized by the opportunity to fuel growth and drive Adobe’s leadership in the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience. – Anil Chakravarthy
Frank Calderoni, Adobe’s lead independent director who oversaw the selection, said the board unanimously determined Chakravarthy was the right leader for the company’s next chapter. He cited Chakravarthy’s deep understanding of Adobe’s products, his talent for building teams, and his ability to carry forward the company’s culture and values through a difficult period.
The selection process was described as rigorous, with the board evaluating both internal and external candidates before settling on Chakravarthy. The decision to go with an insider suggests the board wanted continuity during a period of significant strategic transition, rather than a disruptive outsider who might overhaul the company’s direction entirely.
Narayen’s Legacy
Narayen’s tenure transformed Adobe from a boxed-software company into a subscription powerhouse. Under his leadership, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and InDesign became industry standards for creative professionals worldwide. The shift to Creative Cloud subscriptions, starting in 2013, was the defining strategic move of his time in charge.
The transition was controversial at first. Adobe moved from selling perpetual software licenses to charging monthly and annual subscriptions, a change that initially alienated many long-time users who resented paying ongoing fees for software they had previously purchased outright. But the model proved enormously profitable, turning Adobe into one of the most consistent revenue growers in enterprise software. Annual recurring revenue grew from roughly $1 billion when Narayen took over to more than $20 billion by the time he announced his departure in March.
Narayen also oversaw Adobe’s acquisitions of Figma and Frame.io, expanding the company’s footprint in collaboration and video editing. The Figma deal, initially announced at $20 billion, was abandoned in 2023 after regulatory pushback from antitrust authorities in both the US and Europe, then relaunched under revised terms. The episode highlighted the regulatory headwinds facing large tech acquisitions.
Narayen will remain involved as executive chair, working closely with Chakravarthy to ensure a smooth transition. The move mirrors a pattern at other large tech companies, where founders and long-serving CEOs shift to board-level roles while operational leadership passes to executives with more recent operational experience.
Adobe shares dropped 1% in after-hours trading on Thursday following the announcement, suggesting investors had largely anticipated the change. The real test will come on September 10, when Adobe reports Q3 results and investors get their first look at how the company plans to position itself under new leadership amid the AI disruption reshaping creative software.
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