Sep 10, 2026 earnings call — CEO transition and agentic AI strategy
Adobe reported record revenue of $6.76 billion, representing 12% year over year.
Revenue $6.8B (est $6.7B) · EPS $6.13 (est $6.08) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $6.8B–$6.8B
Key quotes
"AI enables us to democratize access to every creative discipline For everyone from the casual creator to the most seasoned, creative professional."
"it is incredible that these innovations are now used by over 1 billion monthly active users across all businesses a number that grew >20% year over year in Q3 With the creative premium MAU, crossing 100 million and growing >70% year over year."
"I am delighted that Anil S. Chakravarthy will become Adobe's next president and chief executive officer and join the board of directors."
Analyst Q&A 11
How Agentic fits strategy
Q (Matt Swanson · RBC): How big a factor is Agentic software in Adobe's strategy? What could the long-term path and end state look like?
A: Management said Agentic software is a major opportunity. They plan to lead in Agentic across creativity, productivity, and customer experience. They will focus on product architecture, model flexibility, enterprise data, and value realization.
"I see immense opportunity for Adobe to be the leader in Agentic software." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
CEO background and growth focus
Q (Saket Kalia · Barclays): Does Anil's background in digital experience indicate where the board sees Adobe's growth? How does he view that role?
A: The board said they preferred an internal leader who understands the company and its full opportunity. Management said Anil has represented all of Adobe to enterprise customers across products and sees opportunity across all categories and customer sizes.
"I see massive opportunity across all of our base." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
Big challenges and RPO details
Q (Jay Vleeschhouwer · Griffin): What are Adobe's most important strategic or technical challenges ahead? Also, what drove the single-digit RPO growth and any unusual consumption out of Q2?
A: Management said the main focus is bringing existing assets together and building new capabilities for agentic software across categories, while delivering AI value securely and cost-efficiently. On RPO, they said CRPO was 9% and the trends match their AIR pattern, reflecting freemium user acquisition; RPO and CRPO typically step up in Q4 then stay flat over the next three quarters.
"But if you take a step back and look at these trends over the course of a typical year, both RPO and CRPO step up in our fourth quarter, and then remain fairly flat over the next 3 quarters." — Steven Day (CFO)
Drivers of Q4 guidance
Q (Samik · JPMorgan): Q4 guidance implies modest sequential growth in creative and marketing professionals. What assumptions drove that outlook?
A: They reiterated the full-year ending ARR guide of 10.2% growth. For Q4 they expect Acrobat and Express innovations to help consumer growth, Firefly and Creative Cloud innovations ahead of MAX to support creative professionals, and a strong CX pipeline plus seasonality to help marketing professionals.
"First of all, wanted to say that we reiterated our full year guide of 10.2% growth for the full year in terms of ending ARR." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
Why Firefly credit use is accelerating
Q (Brad Zelnick · Deutsche Bank): What is driving accelerating credit consumption in Firefly? Are certain generation types responsible and how will this evolve?
A: They said the freemium strategy brought many new users into the funnel (creative freemium over 100 million, growing >70% year-over-year). Management said they are increasing AI usage intensity and engagement, which is starting to convert into ARR, and credit packs and apps showed strong quarter-over-quarter growth.
"With the Firefly ending ARR, the apps, the credit packs, showing the 40% quarter over quarter growth." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
Freemium vs pricing trade-offs
Q (Alex Zukin · Wolfe): How much headwind came from doubling down on freemium versus deferring pricing? When will deferred Creative Cloud pricing optimizations resume?
A: Management said they chose a singular focus on driving MAU and Firefly/platform innovation rather than short-term pricing actions. They believe acquiring many users now is more important than near-term pricing, and they prefer to keep driving adoption first.
"Yeah. I think the 2 things we said, and then I will have Anil add mean, the 2 things that we said that were really important for us was 1, within the company, let's make sure we have an absolutely singular focus and align the company on what was important." — Shantanu Narayen (CEO·CHAIR)
Net new ARR decline reasons
Q (Kirk Materne · Evercore): Net new ARR fell ~36–37% year over year. Is this seat volume, lapping pricing, or intentional premium funnel effects?
A: They said the decline reflects a deliberate strategy to balance acquiring new customers via freemium and growing ARR. Management redirected some traffic into the freemium funnel to acquire next-generation creators, then engage them and calibrate when to convert to ARR. They also noted SEMrush was integrated into combined offerings and Adobe Brand Visibility doubled paying customers.
"So that is the approach we have taken to make sure that we are really tapping into this large base of next generation creators." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
AI pricing models and Topaz deal
Q (Billy Fitzsimmons · Piper Sandler): Which pricing model will primarily drive AI revenue over time? And what strategic gaps does Topaz Labs fill and how will its tech fold into Adobe?
A: They said monetization will depend on what customers do and their context; first priority is to acquire users and then map value to monetization by segment and use case. For Topaz, they called it state-of-the-art AI tech for imaging and video that fits naturally with Creative Cloud and Firefly, and they expect to close the deal in Q4 and discuss more at MAX.
"Topaz really was the state-of-the-art, state of the art, you know, technology for us in terms of AI enhancements, cross imaging, video, so we have actually-- a number of our customers have our technology along with Topaz." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
Top transition priorities
Q (Brent Thill · Jefferies): As you transition into the CEO role, what are your top two priorities over the next year?
A: He said the immediate focus is Q4 and executing FY 2026 strategic initiatives to close the year strong. He also highlighted MAX, showcasing recent innovations, engaging customers and employees, and building the leadership team during the transition through December 1st.
"We remain focused on executing our FY 2026 strategic initiatives and closing out the year strong." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)
Creative opportunities and Q4 guidance
Q (Tyler Radke · Citi): Where do the largest opportunities in creative lie and any new strategies? Also, are there any dynamics in Q4 that explain the guidance raise being short of the Q3 beat?
A: Management said the creative market is larger than ever and there is opportunity as software moves from SaaS to agentic, with innovations to be showcased at MAX. On guidance, they said nothing material changed in the business but there is a slight FX headwind coming into Q4 that nets off the raise.
"So we as you said, we pushed through the beat that we saw in Q3, but there is a slight FX headwind that, we are having coming into Q4." — Steven Day (CFO)
When to convert freemium users
Q (Michael Turrin · Wells Fargo): How will you evaluate trade-offs between growing freemium users and capturing value via pricing? Also, what seasonal net new ARR assumptions should we expect for Q4 versus Q3?
A: They said they use a data-driven model to prove value first and then use engagement and AI usage signals to decide the best conversion point, including paywall tuning. They reiterated Q4 is seasonally larger than Q3 with a strong enterprise quarter and said they expect the Q4 shape to deliver the 10.2% ARR guide.
"And once they get value, we get a lot of signals." — Anil S. Chakravarthy (PRESIDENT)