Adobe announced on March 12 that its long-time Indian-American chief executive Shantanu Narayen plans to step down after leading the company for nearly two decades. The decision comes as the design software
giant prepares to navigate rapid shifts in the artificial intelligence (AI) era and rising competition in the technology sector.
Narayen will continue as CEO until a successor is appointed and will then transition to the role of chair of the board, the company said. Adobe’s lead independent director Frank Calderoni will head a special committee overseeing the search for the next chief executive, considering both internal and external candidates.
In an email to employees, Narayen said he would work closely with Calderoni and Adobe’s board to ensure a smooth transition.
“I will stay on as Chair of the Board to support the next CEO just as Adobe co-founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke did when I took on this role,” he wrote.
Calderoni praised Narayen’s leadership, calling him the architect of Adobe’s transformation over the past 18 years. “Shantanu has positioned Adobe strongly for success in the AI-driven era,” he said.
Narayen’s background and career
Narayen grew up in Hyderabad and holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from Osmania University. He later moved to the United States, earning a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University in 1986 and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
He joined Adobe in 1988 as vice president and general manager of the company’s engineering technology group. Narayen became CEO in 2007 and chairman of the board in 2017. Prior to Adobe, he held product development roles at Apple and Silicon Graphics and co-founded an early photo-sharing startup called Pictra.
During his tenure, Adobe’s workforce expanded from about 3,000 employees to more than 30,000, while annual revenue grew from under $1 billion to over $25 billion. He also led the company’s transition from traditional software licensing to cloud-based subscription services.
Reflecting on his journey, Narayen said Adobe’s culture of innovation and creativity drew him to the company nearly three decades ago.
“The next era of creativity is being written right now — shaped by AI, new workflows and entirely new forms of expression,” he said, adding that Adobe’s people and technology position it well for the future.
Adobe’s push into AI
In recent years, Adobe has focused heavily on embedding generative AI capabilities across its products, including Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere Pro, Illustrator and enterprise offerings under Experience Cloud.
The company has also introduced Adobe Firefly, its family of generative AI models designed to produce commercially safe images and videos for creators and businesses.
According to Narayen, annualised revenue from Adobe’s AI-first products more than tripled year-on-year in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. He said the segment could become Adobe’s next billion-dollar business.
Adobe also recently crossed 850 million monthly active users across products such as Acrobat, Creative Cloud, Express and Firefly, reflecting 17% year-on-year growth.
Industry reactions and past deals
Adobe’s ambitions in design collaboration also included a $20 billion bid for design platform Figma in 2022, which would have been the largest acquisition of a private software company. However, the companies abandoned the deal in December 2023 following regulatory hurdles in Europe and the UK. Figma later went public in July 2025 in one of the year’s largest tech IPOs.
Figma co-founder Dylan Field praised Narayen’s leadership, calling him a thoughtful and visionary leader. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also congratulated Narayen on what he described as a “legendary run at Adobe”.
Beyond technology, Narayen has also been involved in promoting cricket in the United States alongside Nadella. Both are investors in Major League Cricket, a professional Twenty20 league launched in 2022 with $120 million in funding.
Narayen is also part of the ownership group of the San Francisco Unicorns franchise in the league and a consortium that owns London Spirit, a team in England’s The Hundred tournament.
