Adobe’s board announced Thursday that Anil Chakravarthy will become the company’s next president and chief executive officer, ending Shantanu Narayen’s nearly two-decade run atop the design software giant. The move, effective December 1, comes as Adobe fights to convince Wall Street it can hold its ground against a wave of AI-native rivals, making it one of the more consequential pieces of technology news to hit the software sector this year.
Chakravarthy currently leads Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, a role he has held for roughly six and a half years since joining the company from data management firm Informatica, where he served as CEO. Narayen, who has run Adobe since 2007, will shift into the role of executive chair rather than leaving the company outright, staying on to guide the handoff.
The leadership change lands at a pointed moment. Adobe stock has fallen sharply over the past three years on fears that generative AI tools will erode demand for its creative and productivity software, and the company is simultaneously losing one of its other top executives, design chief David Wadhwani, who announced his own departure the same day.
Why Adobe’s Board Moved Now
Frank Calderoni, Adobe’s lead independent director, said he oversaw the special committee that ran the search for Narayen’s replacement. He credited Chakravarthy’s track record leading the customer experience unit as the deciding factor.
“The board has unanimously determined that Anil is the right leader for Adobe’s next chapter of growth,” Calderoni said in the company’s official announcement, pointing to Chakravarthy’s history of “innovation-led growth” and his role in “carrying forward Adobe’s culture and values.”
Narayen, for his part, framed the decision as a vote of confidence rather than an exit under pressure. “Adobe’s opportunity ahead is limitless with our track record in creating new market categories and world-class products,” he said, calling Chakravarthy “an experienced transformational leader who leads with values, integrity and a deep knowledge of our business.”
Chakravarthy said he was “deeply honored to have been chosen to lead Adobe during this pivotal moment,” a comment that echoes the company’s public positioning around what it calls agentic software for creativity, productivity, and customer experience, an area Adobe has been building out through products like GenStudio and its CX Enterprise Coworker tools.
A Long Internal Track Record
Chakravarthy’s path to the top job was not a sudden ascent. He joined Adobe in 2020 as an executive vice president after leading Informatica, and CNBC has reported that his connection to Narayen predates that move entirely, growing out of a partnership between Informatica and Adobe. He has previously said the chance to work alongside Narayen and Adobe’s leadership team was a major reason he made the jump.
That history matters to how the transition is being read on Wall Street: this is an internal successor with years of exposure to Adobe’s board and strategy, not an outside hire brought in to force a reset.
The Stock Problem Chakravarthy Inherits
The backdrop to this technology news story is a rough stretch for Adobe’s share price. After a strong run in 2023, the stock has slid for three straight years as investors worry that AI tools, some built by startups and some by Adobe’s own competitors, will chip away at its core creative software business.
| Year | Adobe Stock Performance |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Strong gains during the broader AI rally |
| 2024 | Down approximately 25% |
| 2025 | Down approximately 21% |
| 2026 (year to date) | Down approximately 18% |
Shares fell roughly 2% in after-hours trading following Thursday’s announcement, a muted reaction that suggests investors are still waiting to see how Chakravarthy plans to respond to competitive pressure from newer design tools like Figma and Canva.
The Figma Deal That Never Happened
Adobe’s rivalry with Figma has a history that predates this leadership change. The company attempted to acquire Figma outright, a deal that would have folded one of its fastest-growing competitors into Adobe’s portfolio, but regulators blocked the path forward and the companies called off the acquisition in 2023. David Wadhwani, the executive now departing Adobe, played a central role in that failed bid, which is part of why he had been viewed as a leading internal candidate for the CEO role himself.
A Second Executive Departure on the Same Day
Adobe’s CEO announcement was paired with news that Wadhwani, who has run the company’s creativity and productivity business for nearly five years, is leaving. In a LinkedIn post, Wadhwani said he has several company ideas he intends to “explore and pressure-test” next, framing his exit as a deliberate next chapter rather than a fallout from being passed over.
“As much as Adobe means to me, I’ve decided this is the right moment for me to start a new chapter, and it’s a great moment for Adobe to do the same as Anil steps into the CEO role,” Wadhwani wrote, adding that he leaves “confident in where he’ll take Adobe.”
What Happens Next
Chakravarthy officially takes over on December 1, giving Adobe roughly three months to manage a dual transition at the top of the company while Narayen remains involved as executive chair. For now, Adobe has not detailed changes to strategy beyond its existing AI push, and any signal about how the new CEO plans to address investor concerns will likely come with the company’s next earnings report.
The bigger test for Chakravarthy will be whether Adobe’s bet on embedding AI directly into its existing software, rather than losing customers to standalone AI-first tools, is enough to stabilize the stock and reassure a market that has spent three years pricing in disruption.
