Adobe is eyeing two internal leaders in its quest for a new chief executive officer and has hired a well-known search firm to find external candidates who could be suited to running the company in the AI era.David Wadhwani and Anil Chakravarthy, the heads of Adobe's two main business units, are the leading in-house candidates to become the company's next CEO, according to people with knowledge of the process.At the same time, the creative software maker has tapped search firm Heidrick & Struggles International to look for external candidates, particularly those who have experience developing or monetizing artificial intelligence products at scale, the people said.Firms on AI spending spree: US tech companies cut most jobs in nearly 2 yearsAs part of the search, Microsoft Executive VP Charles Lamanna held discussions with Adobe about the role, but ultimately opted against continuing with the process, according to another person familiar with the process. Lamanna oversees a swath of product development at Microsoft, including efforts to weave AI into business applications.The top maker of software for creative professionals, Adobe is facing mounting competition from AI-native tools. Along with software-as-a-service peers, the company has seen its valuation decline over fears of losing ground. The stock has dropped 59% from an early 2024 peak in an example of the so-called SaaSpocalypse.The spy who hired me: Chinese agents hunt for secrets on LinkedInShantanu Narayen announced in March that he would step down from his role after finding a successor.Announcing a search publicly seemed to throw into question a long-standing view inside Adobe: that Wadhwani was its heir apparent. He leads the business unit with flagship tools like Photoshop and Acrobat, which contribute about three-fourths of the company's revenue-$17.7 billion last year.Chakravarthy leads the marketing and analytics software business, which generated $5.9 billion in sales in the 2025 fiscal year, about a quarter of the company's total.