Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced last night he is transitioning out of his role... The stock is down about 60% from its record high despite new Gen AI capabilities. In the latest quarter, annual recurring revenue did decelerate. Legacy creative software incumbents are struggling to monetize AI fast enough to offset the disruption it causes to their traditional seat-based licensing models. The departure of a highly successful 18-year CEO signals internal struggles with this pivot, meaning AI is currently a headwind rather than a tailwind for the core business. AVOID. Until Adobe proves its generative AI tools can re-accelerate ARR rather than cannibalize existing users or increase compute costs without proportional revenue gains, the stock faces structural headwinds. A new visionary CEO could successfully revamp the pricing model, or Adobe could leverage its cash to acquire AI-native competitors, sparking a sudden rally.