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Adobe’s CFO on product personalization, pricing and what’s driving growth

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Good morning. The next evolution of personalization for customers is slated to be agentic AI—autonomous digital agents capable of independently performing tasks. For marketing software giant Adobe, that means a top priority is building out a collection of its own brand of creative agents.

During the Adobe Summit last week in Las Vegas, I had a conversation with Dan Durn, CFO and EVP of finance, technology services, and operations at Adobe. The company is placing a big bet on agentic AI and announced 10 agents and an agent orchestration tool on its Adobe Experience platform. It’s also designed to work with third-party agents and customer-built agents. 

“Agents are a way to bring technology capabilities into the creative workflow to unload those tasks that are just slow and repetitive and require people to just grind their way through it,” Durn told me. For example, one such agent monitors the status of ongoing projects, streamlines approvals, and focuses on collaboration between departments or employees to accelerate workflows.

Addressing content productivity and using real-time data, such as on Adobe’s customer data platform, are the “two pillars that are on the critical path of being successful with personalization,” Durn said. 

Boston Consulting Group predicts that over the next five years, $2 trillion in revenue will shift to companies that understand how to create personalized experiences and communication. And new AI capabilities provide more personalization, according to the firm.

Regarding enterprise sales, Adobe (No. 210 in the Fortune 500) reported that in FY 2024 joint creative and marketing deals grew by over 100% year-over-year. “It’s a proof point of that dynamic we see, which is creative and marketing groups coming closer together in the enterprise,” Durn said. 

“The predominant driver of growth has been, and continues to be new subscribers to the Adobe platform,” he said. “Pricing is a lever for us. Every so often, we’ll want to align the price that we charge our customers to reflect the substantial value that is in our products.” He added, “We’ll use pricing to make sure we’re getting paid for the value we’re delivering.”

In Q1 FY 25, the three months that ended on Feb. 28, Adobe earned record revenue of $5.71 billion, representing 10% year-over-year growth. For Adobe’s standalone and add-on AI products, annual recurring revenue reached over $125 million for the quarter and, over the next nine months, the company expects that figure to double. Although there were better-than-expected results, Wall Street had concerns about monetizing AI growth. However, some analysts are seeing momentum toward the long-term AI strategy.

Bank of America analysts wrote in a March 19 note following Adobe’s investor meeting on March 18: “No financial targets were provided to back momentum with top of funnel efforts, monetization and AI offerings. However, a few disclosures and product introductions suggest momentum is building.” The analysts maintained a Buy rating and a price target of $528.

“This technology allows us to take content creation and production and monetize it in a way that’s more customer value-based or more outcome-based,” Durn told me.

And he sees innovation as part of Adobe’s DNA. “We’ve been at the core and foundation of some of the important digital trends that are shaping the digital economy,” he said of the company.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Trump reportedly told members of his Cabinet that Elon Musk will pull back from DOGE ‘soon’

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  • President Donald Trump told the Cabinet that world’s richest man Elon Musk will leave his administration post “soon,” specifically within the coming weeks, according to a Politico report. Musk’s involvement in the government has caused public sentiment around his company’s to deteriorate; a departure from the executive branch would allow him to return to his businesses. The White House publicly rejected the reports, calling the news “fake.” 

President Donald Trump has alerted those in his inner circle, including some members of the Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping away from his role as the figure-head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within weeks, according to a report by Politico.

While Trump emphasized that he was pleased with Musk and the efforts of DOGE, both have reportedly mutually decided that it was time for Musk to transition into a supporting role in Washington so he can return to his businesses, according to three anonymous Trump insiders. 

“I think he’s been amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run…And at some point he’s going to be going back. He wants to,” Trump told reporters Monday.

Musk, categorized as a special government employee (SGE), has been busy slashing federal spending and is slated to end his stint in the White House in late May, when he reaches the 130-day SGE working caps. The report comes more than a month after a senior political advisor close to Trump told Politico that Musk was “here to stay,” and would exceed his 130-day timeline. 

One senior administration official told Politico it’s likely that Musk will hold an informal advisory position and continue to make occasional appearances at the White House. Another said in the same report anyone who believes Musk will leave Trump’s eye is “fooling themselves.”

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an X post Wednesday the Politico report was “garbage,” and the two have agreed that Musk will leave the White House as a special government employee when he completes his work with DOGE.

Additionally, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fortune the report is “fake news.”

“This is exactly why President Trump and DOGE have terminated millions of dollars in wasteful, government contracts to so-called news organizations that have diminished their credibility with the American people,” Field said, referencing Politico’s ties to USAID budget cuts.

Musk has sparked frustration among those close to and within the Trump administration who view the world’s richest man as a political liability. Most notably, Musk publicly backed and bankrolled a conservative judge who lost a bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by a wide margin Tuesday, indicating public sentiment around the billionaire. 

Last week, Trump began paving the way for Musk’s exit from Washington, telling Cabinet members Musk would be beginning his transition out of the executive branch, according to an insider who was not in the meeting, but briefed on what was said.

Throughout Musk’s political endeavors, his businesses have taken a toll, specifically Tesla. Last month, Musk publicly admitted that he was running his businesses with “great difficulty,” while juggling his federal duties. 

After the Politico report came out, however, the EV maker’s stock jumped, signaling that Musk could turn his focus back to Tesla after the company endured a tough stretch.

Tesla has been the chief victim of Musk’s political activism, and while his departure from DOGE likely won’t do much to boost demand in Europe, it should help put a floor under demand in the U.S.

Tesla stock has dropped more than 5% over the past month, and plunged more than 31% year-over-year. Additionally, shares fell 36% in the first quarter, its largest quarterly slip since 2022.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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DOGE could worsen America’s child care crisis with cuts to programs: ‘You could almost feel the wave of panic’

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Some free measles vaccine clinics in Texas are closing due to federal funding cuts

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  • Texas healthcare officials are cancelling 50 planned vaccination clinics as measles spreads throughout the state. The decision comes as the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services have cut funding, which was originally allocated to communities during the pandemic.

Cuts to federal funding have forced healthcare officials in Texas to shutter 50 planned vaccination clinics in Dallas, one the state’s most populated areas, as a measles outbreak continues to grow across the state.

Many of those clinics had been planned for areas where vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella were low. The shots would have been freely offered to families.

The decision follows $11.4 billion in funding cuts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services. That money, originally, was allocated to community health departments during the pandemic. Last week, however, HHS said it would “no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

While COVID is not as big of a concern these days, Texas has 422 confirmed cases of measles at the moment. While none are in Dallas, health officials are trying to protect that city, given how fast the disease can spread.

Due to the cuts, 11 full-time and 10 part-time staffers at the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department have been let go, which officials say could impact their ability to fight the spread of the disease. The majority of those workers either gave vaccines or were epidemiologists and lab staff involved with measles surveillance and prevention.

(Clinics in West Texas, where many of the cases are, will continue for now.)

The cuts come a month after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic and the nation’s top health official, said his agency would continue to fund Texas’ immunization program and that ending the outbreak was a “top priority” for him and his team.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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