Adobe has appointed Anil Chakravarthy president and CEO effective Dec. 1, succeeding Shantanu Narayen after nearly two decades as chief executive. Narayen will become executive chair, while Chakravarthy will join Adobe's board and continue from his current leadership roles in Customer Experience Orchestration and worldwide field operations. The board unanimously selected Chakravarthy following a search process, citing his expansion of Adobe's customer-experience business and field organization, as well as work on AI-powered products including GenStudio, Adobe CX Enterprise and Brand Visibility. The succession announcement prompted a sharp market reaction. Adobe shares fell 6.41% on Thursday and another 4% in Friday premarket trading, while the latest report put the stock's year-to-date decline at about 20%, compared with an earlier estimate of about 18%. Jefferies described Chakravarthy as an unexpected choice and had viewed David Wadhwani, who led Adobe's creativity and productivity business, as the leading internal candidate. Wadhwani left Adobe following the announcement. Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 after serving four years as Informatica's CEO. Investors have been weighing whether AI tools will weaken demand for Adobe's core creative-software subscriptions, though JPMorgan said the leadership decision helped address uncertainty. Adobe's next major update will be its fiscal third-quarter 2026 earnings report; earlier reporting cited Sept. 10, while the latest account cited Thursday, Sept. 11.