Adobe’s CEO Is Out – What Will Happen to the CX Empire He Built?

In this discussion, host Rhys Fisher, Associate Editor at CX Today, sits down with Liz Miller, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, for a reaction to one of the biggest leadership stories in enterprise tech.

Shantanu Narayen’s decision to step down as Adobe CEO after 18 years sent shockwaves through the market, and for anyone running customer experience operations on Adobe’s stack, the implications go well beyond a stock price dip.

Liz explains why this is a “fast moving train” story, not a recovery story, and what that means for the next leader.

Brand Concierge and the contact center opportunity: Liz spotlights Adobe’s self-service bot solution as a genuinely surprising move into discovery-led CX, and why it matters for contact center leaders specifically.

What the next CEO must do in 90 days: It’s not about rebuilding. It’s about articulating a vision fast, leaning into ecosystem partnerships with AWS and Nvidia, and proving you can be “the conductor of one of the fastest moving trains in technology.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello, and welcome to TX Today. I'm Reese Fisher, Associate Editor. And today I'm joined by Liz Miller, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research, to discuss the pretty shocking news, I guess. Shantana Narayan, the CEO of Adobe, is stepping down. Liz, I know you you posted on LinkedIn that you were totally without words when you hear the news. I'm hoping you've got some words for us now.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

You know, I was at the time because as a marketer myself, as someone who has been in marketing for over 30 years, it's very hard to think about, well, my day as a marketer without an Adobe solution, right? And this goes all the way back to Photoshop when I was a baby marketer, right? Like we have we have Postscript fonts, you know, and and there have been there have been CEOs that came before Chantanou. But Chantanu Narayan saw Adobe through not just one transformation, not just the shift from disk to cloud and you know, disk to SaaS, but he also saw the digital revolution come on board and take over every single digital channel. He has seen new digital channels explode, but he's also seen the company into this world of AI. And I think that someone who has been through that many transformations deserves a nap, right? And I so I think that I think that we we've hit a point officially where Shantanu Orion is officially granted like the longest vacation, possibly with like an umbrella cocktail. But it's hard to think about Adobe without him. But I will also say that knowing the type of leader that Shantanoon O'Ryan is is and has been at Adobe for, you know, oh gosh, I want to say it's close to 28 years. It's 18 as CEO, but he had been at Adobe for years before that. Um, he has he would not be walking away from something lightly. Um, this would not be a like he woke up one morning and just decided, I'm done. You know, that's that's simply not his management style. Um, but he has left the organization in a place and he leaves the organization in a place where he feels really truly comfortable of where they are in the current revolution, which of course is AI. And I think that with a foundation model that is really head and shoulders above the others out there for image and video and audio, uh, specifically for enterprise use, right? These are specifically models where as you are creating, you can be assured that these are safe and reliable. They're reliable and available for commercial use. They are not going to infringe on a copyright, they are not doing something unethical or you know, untowards behind the scenes. Um, you know, I think he probably feels really good about where the company is and sees an opportunity for this next leap forward. So, I mean, I'm I'm gonna be sad to see him go. I I'm I'm very used to seeing that three-quarter zip sweater. It's like kind of this iconic Chantanou and Orion look. Like, yes, the man is that owns suits, but like I'm so used to him walking out onto the summit or the Mac stage. Like, I always joke that it feels like Uncle Chantanou is here. Um, so it's gonna be very strange without him, but I don't have any doubts about where Adobe's heading or that he feels very confident in where the organization can go from here.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, yeah, I think uh like Oakland, his his legacy is it is pretty remarkable, and I uh I think that's a massive wish. I hope he's uh I hope he's already at the mould enjoying himself. Yeah. Um you mentioned kind of, I guess, and inevitably this will be where where the conversation talk uh turns now. What but what do you think this does mean for Adobe moving forward? More maybe some of the the challenges or maybe even the opportunities that this kind of this change might bring.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, I I mean I think I think that with every change there's an opportunity. I I certainly think that's true at Adobe. Um I think that the opportunity here is you have an organization that is set up with a rock solid foundation and a rock solid platform. Um I think that you have a solution that spans the literal world of engagement from the point of a doodle all the way through to deployment of customer experiences and all the way back, right? And you now have an organization that is set up with innovations like AI, like conversational AI, with their solution around brand concierge. This is a solution that kind of came out of the blue, especially for a lot of us. If you want to talk, you know, talk to the people in the contact center for just a moment, like our bread and butter in the contact center. We were very used to looking at solutions that were going to be these automated AI moments that were going to give customers those self-service moments. We always expected them out of contact center. We expect them out of customer service. We were not expecting one that was going to address the robust graphic nature of discovery. And that's what Adobe has given us in brand concierge through a self-service through a bot solution. So I think that we have a company that is on the cusp and on the brink of figuring out how to extend the boundaries of customer engagement. And I think that that means new markets, new opportunities, new buying groups, new buying segments. So I think the opportunity is to identify a leader who not only really understands Adobe, because Adobe is a very complicated organization in that there are a lot of solutions in there. There are a lot of solutions that you don't necessarily mix well in the pool together, right? Um, but there are also really complicated markets. This is not a single buyer group. You don't think of Adobe and go, oh, okay, the CIO. Instead, you think of Adobe and you think the CMO, the CIO, the head of sales in a B2B organization. And now you're thinking the head of experience, the head of digital, chief customer officers. You're gonna start seeing these solutions like brand conciers. You're gonna start seeing this data start to appear and want to appear in those customer service. Yes, even in those contact center areas. So I think it's gonna have to be, you know, the next CEO of Adobe is going to have to be someone who truly understands how expansive the opportunity is, but has the focus and the rigor. Again, very similar to Chantanau. You need someone who has that focus, who's not gonna allow the crazy, I could be everywhere, I could sell to everyone, but someone who is very disciplined, who is going to look at the market and look at the opportunity and deeply understand how Adobe rises to meet that occasion.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, absolutely. I guess following on from that a little for whoever this next person is, and it no one's been kind of officially mentioned yet. Well I guess what would you think is perhaps the most important thing that that person has to do if it's within the first 90 days, the first six months, the first year, to kind of maybe uh you know, reassure the enterprise of that market potentially, because you know, as we've talked about, he's been such kind of a a huge figure in that space. There will inevitably be perhaps a little bit of unsurety with uh whoever the new person is.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think the markets, I think financial markets will decide they're unsure, but then again, financial markets decide things like Adobe didn't have an AI strategy was kind of a weird thing that the financial markets in Wall Street had decided for a while. And and those of us in the market were like, they've only got Firefly Foundation mod. Okay, you know, it was it was one of those kind of weird things where we're like, no, totally off the mark. Um, and and I think that the the folks who will react that way with Shop New stepping down, that that will be a same statement, right? I think you're gonna see a pop in the financial markets, and then those are gonna start to calm down and then start to kind of rebalance. They've seen double-digit growth quarter after quarter, year after year. They really have not had they have not missed their numbers in years. I mean, it's kind of astounding from their financial performance. Um, so I think that what the new CEO is going to need to do, those first 90 days, I would say do the listening tour. You know, I think CEOs, when they come in, they do that traditional listening tour, they go and listen internally. Um, you know, they go listen to their customers. I think that from the perspective of Adobe, you're you're gonna want to listen to where the market wants to go as opposed to where the market has been when it comes to Adobe. So in that first 90 days, you're gonna really have to set that vision forward and where Adobe as an organization is going to go, what partnerships are going to be most important, because in the world of Enterprise CX and in this world where we're bringing sales, marketing, service, commerce all together, there isn't one big beast in the room that controls it all. There are so many different players, and it really is an ecosystem. It really is that better together. And you now have Adobe with rock solid partnerships with AWS, a newly announced partnership with NVIDIA that just means that AI is going to go faster. It's going to be more reliable. There's going to be even more power behind those foundation models. So I think you're going to have to have someone in the first 90 days who's going to be very clearly able to articulate the vision of where Adobe can go near term, but then also start to listen for where Adobe is going to go long term. This isn't going to be a recovery story. This isn't going to be a reimagination story. This is going to be a this is a fast moving train story. Do you have someone with the rigor that in the first 90 days can prove they know how to be the conductor of one of the fastest moving trains in technology?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Yeah, yeah, I really like that analogy. I think that's a great way to put it that yet you're not starting from scratch, you're not rebuilding to try and keep up the momentum.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

And this isn't someone, yeah, this isn't someone who's being pushed out of the market or someone who, you know, like there, there isn't, I think the thing that people are going to be most curious about here with Adobe, this isn't a negative thing. I think there's going to be so much goodwill. Like there, there is that sense in the market of like, God, I hope this guy takes a nap. Like, go, go get your flowers, go get all the awards. Like you 100% deserve it. But this is also not a company who is flailing or failing, or where stockholders or the board started to lose confidence. This is a company in extremely good movement and extremely good velocity. So I think the thing that we're all going to have to watch for is do you have someone who can immediately step into that spot and be like, I know how to, I know how, I know how to keep this train on the track.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah. I think it's interesting because obviously in any position like this, there is pressure, but it feels almost the pressure is a little different here because it's not sometimes when you come in when when a company's on the floor, there's almost there is no pressure because it can only go one way. But like you said, in this situation, you know, you you've you've got to keep you've got to keep it where it's been. You can't afford to you know bring it down.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Oh 100%. Oh, 100%. And and I think there's going to be a lot of um, there'll be a lot of comparison in style. I think there are also, you know, I think that from from what we know and from what has been reported with with the stepping down, they're looking at the you know internal and external candidates through, you know, the board is is the sign to look at that. I will say there are terrific internal candidates. And again, that's something that speaks to Chantan Ryan. He surrounded himself intentionally with really great people. And I think that when you look at the leadership at Adobe just past Chantanau, if you look at the people who really stand there and kind of support that vision and have moved him forward, you have really terrific leaders. Um, and I think it you would be hard pressed to say, like, oh, there's no one, there are no internal candidates. You know, I think there are some terrific ones. Um, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who've raised their hand, who would love to be the CEO of a successful, publicly traded, um iconic brand uh like Adobe. So I think that um I think an external candidate is gonna have a heck of a harder time because I think Adobe can be a very hard organization to understand. It has grown through acquisition, but it has also grown through ground up innovation and customer-driven innovation. So, you know, I think it's I think it's very difficult to just for an outsider to come in and be like, oh yeah, I get I get what all this stuff is, you know. Um, is it possible? 100%, absolutely. But, you know, I I think that there's a I think the hardest job here, to be very honest with you, is gonna be that board who's looking at the candidates. Because you're gonna have to find someone, you're gonna have to find someone fast, and you're gonna have to be decisive about that pick. And that pick is gonna have to be as equally embraced by the business world and the financial markets of a publicly traded company as they are by both the marketing and the creative community. And I think that there is something very interesting that people often forget about Adobe, which is this is a company that is just as embraced and just as trusted as a tool of choice for an attorney creating a contract on a PDF through Acrobat and through their document cloud, as you have an art director, as you have an artist, as you have an Oscar-winning filmmaker, as you have a marketeer at a top brand, as you have a marketer at a small brand who's just picking up something like Adobe Express. What other solution out there goes from attorney to artist in the blink of an eye? It's Adobe. That's mind-boggling. So the per you know, the board has to find someone who can satisfy all of us. And that's not gonna be an easy, that's not gonna be an easy feat.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

No, no, not at all. It's uh yeah, obviously we we we look at it more from the CX lens, but like you said, the actual scope of everything it covers is is really it is quite remarkable. It's hard to think of uh companies of that size that cover anything near that variety of areas. So it will be it's gonna be really, really fascinating to see if they'll uh if they'll favour someone who's got expertise in one area over the other, or yeah, just how they're gonna go about it. I think it's gonna be a really interesting story to see how it plays out. And especially I think at that how they how they position this new person at the start, I think is gonna be like you touched on, that's gonna be really fascinating and maybe give us that insight into how if any changes they are going to make, what direction they'll go in.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

I mean, I'm gonna be looking at Adobe Summit. Uh it's it's gonna be, you know, it's it's the it's the last time Uncle Shant knew in his quarters if he's gonna take the stage. Hopefully, hopefully that doesn't change. Oh my gosh, I think I think I will be most distressed if I don't see that happen at Summit. But that's you know, it feels like just a few weeks away, um, you know, about a month away. Less than that, less than that. Oh my gosh. But I think that there um, you know, that's an opportunity as well. For you know, I I think, hey, anyone who's an incoming CEO or anyone who is being vetted or looked at, you want to come and see just how vast this audience is. See if the Venetian.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah, like I said, it's it's gonna be really, really interesting to see how it all plays out. Um, but yeah, thanks, Liz. Thank you so much for joining me. I know uh I know you've got a flight to cap, so I really appreciate you taking the time to jump on this call. I don't want to keep you any longer. Happy to, happy to. No problem at all. I will very quickly just thank our audience as well uh for tuning in. Remember, you can uh like and subscribe to this channel if you enjoyed the chat, and you can head on over to txtoday.com for more stories like this. Uh, until next time. Thanks for watching.