Investing.com -- Adobe said on Thursday that Anil Chakravarthy will become its next president and chief executive officer, succeeding longtime CEO Shantanu Narayen as the software maker looks to accelerate its growth in artificial intelligence.

Chakravarthy, currently president of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, will take over as CEO and join Adobe’s board on Dec. 1. Narayen will transition to executive chair and work with Chakravarthy to support the leadership change and the company’s broader transformation.

The appointment comes as Adobe seeks to strengthen its position in AI-driven creativity, productivity and customer-experience software. Chakravarthy said he would focus on driving growth in what he called the next era of “agentic software,” as Adobe works to integrate AI more deeply across its product portfolio.

Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager of its Digital Experience business. He later assumed responsibility for worldwide field operations and was promoted to president of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations in December 2021.

During his tenure, Chakravarthy oversaw the expansion of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and helped develop products including Adobe CX Enterprise, GenStudio and Brand Visibility. He also played a role in scaling Adobe Experience Platform and integrating the acquisitions of Workfront and Semrush.

Before joining Adobe, Chakravarthy served as chief executive of enterprise cloud data-management company Informatica for four years. He previously held executive positions at Symantec and VeriSign and worked at McKinsey & Company.

Narayen, who has led Adobe for decades, said Chakravarthy was the right leader to guide the company through an AI-driven period of growth. The board said a special committee conducted a six-and-a-half-month selection process before unanimously approving the appointment.

Adobe is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Sept. 10, with investors likely to focus on the company’s AI strategy, adoption of new AI-powered products and the outlook for growth under the incoming leadership.