Adobe (ADBE) shares are under pressure this week ahead of the company’s highly anticipated quarterly results, due after the closing bell tomorrow. In early trading this morning, the stock slid more than 3% from Monday’s close and is now trading below $350 early in the afternoon session.
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The catalyst for the recent weakness remains uncertain, though some market watchers suggest speculative selling—despite expectations for a beat-and-raise—may point to a potential long squeeze. Seasoned investors may already be aware that the last time Adobe missed its earnings expectations was in 2018.
Unlikely to have been the cause of today’s soft trading, but a reminder of the elephant in the room likely to dominate the earnings call commentary tomorrow, is ADBE’s newly developed “AI agent” products. Earlier today, the software maker announced the availability of AI agents, promising to “reshape how businesses build, deliver and optimize customer experiences and marketing campaigns.”
The general availability of ADBE’s AI Agents and Agent Orchestrator product marks another milestone on the road towards “agentic AI” becoming a staple of enterprise workflows, whether it be graphics, supply chain management, or social media. To help ADBE on its merry way, the creative software firm announced “strategic partnerships” with Cognizant (CTSH), Google Cloud (GOOGL), PwC, and Omnicom (OMC) as its AI partners.
AI Spending Goes Through the Ceiling
With tech firms clamoring to develop personalized AI solutions for their clients, ADBE is also joining the AI boom in leveraging the new technology to “manage and customize agents” not only within its own software habitat, but also across third-party ecosystems. The ultimate goal, according to the firm, is “for agents to take contextually relevant actions and deliver ROI.”
The writing on the wall is clear. Although occupying a fairly small niche within the tech/software landscape, ADBE has reinvented itself into a firm that sees itself as more than just a creative software leader—it’s becoming a central player in enterprise AI, offering designers, marketers, and businesses the ability to automate campaigns, optimize customer journeys, and unlock ROI through contextual, data-driven actions.
Examining Adobe’s peers, nearly every large-cap tech company is now investing heavily in AI. Microsoft (MSFT) is placing its bet on OpenAI while building AI copilots across its ecosystem. The tech giant set a new record with $24.2 billion in capex last quarter and plans to spend upwards of $30 billion every three months.
Alphabet (GOOGL) is actively developing its Gemini model and weaving it into its Workspace and Cloud products, having spent northward of $85 billion in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, possibly with the biggest footprint of all, Meta (META) has penciled in over $600 billion of AI research and development over the next three years.
Against this backdrop, Adobe’s agentic AI approach demonstrates that the AI arms race waits for no one. ADBE isn’t content to sit on the sidelines—the company intends to secure a meaningful stake in the AI transformation reshaping software. In tomorrow’s report, the market expects EPS of $5.18 per share with revenues of $5.91 billion. This implies annual growth of roughly 11.3% for EPS and 9% for revenues. If Adobe outperforms analysts’ expectations once again, today’s bearish sellers may find themselves regretting their haste.
