Adobe named its next chief executive officer, and the stock was falling on Friday. Wall Street may have been hoping for an outsider to come in and take the reigns as artificial intelligence drastically changes the creative software landscape.

Adobe announced Thursday night that Anil Chakravarthy will take over as CEO from Shantanu Narayen in December. This news comes after Adobe said in March that Narayen would be stepping down after 18 years at the helm, and that the company would be looking for both internal and external candidates to replace him.

Chakravarthy is an internal hire. He is currently president of Adobe's Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations.

Shareholders seemed concerned by the choice. The stock was down 6.1% on Friday to $268.36.

"If this was Plan A, what took so long?" KeyBanc Capital Markes analyst Jackson Ader wrote on Friday. "The awkward implication here is that this wasn't Plan A or maybe even Plan B and the Company had a hard time attracting the kind of outside talent befitting a company of Adobe's stature."

However, William Blair analyst Arjun Bhatia wrote on Friday that the company's decision to go internal "shows Adobe values continuity in leadership and is confident in its current strategy and vision."

Adobe stock has fallen 23% this year compared with the 13% rise of the S&P 500. Software stocks across the board have taken a hit as shareholders weigh the risk that improving AI tech has on the space. For Adobe, competitive risks continue to rise, threatening market share and pricing power.

Adobe is pushing back against this narrative. The firm has released several of its own AI powered updates. Optimists also believe because the company is so deeply enriched in existing businesses workflows that it has a solid chance of surviving new competition.

Adobe says it believes Chakravarthy is the right choice to lead the company in an AI world.

"I could not be more confident that Anil is the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era and look forward to working closely with him in my new role as executive chair," Narayen said in the news release.