We've had a lot of interesting conversations on the Digital Builder podcast, but Episode 34 is particularly unique because it's the first episode we filmed live. We sat down with Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO at Autodesk, during Autodesk University 2022 to learn about his vision for the AEC sector and what we can do to overcome construction's most pressing challenges.
Check out the video below to see our conversation in full, and watch as Andrew shares his views on the construction industry and where it's headed.
You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
As someone who's been at Autodesk for a quarter of a century, Andrew witnessed the evolution of the construction tools used today. He also played a big part in moving the company's infrastructure to the cloud, which gives him a distinct perspective on construction technology, and how it can help address the industry's capacity problem.
It seems that everything is in short supply these days. Construction firms globally are grappling with smaller budgets, material shortages, and labor challenges—and the reality is this will persist in the coming months and years.
As Andrew puts it, "the capacity problem isn't going away. There's never going to be enough money. There's never going to be enough material, and there's never going to be enough labor."
So, what can we do about construction's capacity problem? Andrew recommends learning from the manufacturing industry.
"There's never going to be enough money. There's never going to be enough material, and there's never going to be enough labor."
"Over decades and decades, the manufacturing industry has increased its capacity with finite resources. They've refined to use less stuff and increase their capacity even when their labor pool has shrunk or when people aren't spending more money. Manufacturers have been capacity creation machines. We need to bring some of that mojo to the AEC industry, and I really do believe we can. I believe we can be a capacity creation machine too."
Navigating today's construction landscape requires us to do more with less. To do that, teams must streamline how they work, collaborate, and share data. Minimizing miscommunication is vital because so much waste can come from issues around people not being on the same page.
Cloud technology helps resolve these problems by making information more accessible and keeping teams connected.
"We're all familiar with the disconnects," comments Andrew. "You send an email, but it doesn't get tracked. You give people a list, but the list doesn't get tracked. You tell folks about the same problem six or seven times, but they hear you wrong. These are basic communication problems—and the cloud is beautiful for solving this stuff."
He continues, "When you put the flow of information at the center, the cloud's the natural place to go. That’s because the cloud is exceptional at connecting disparate types of data, creating transparency, and allowing real-time collaboration and access on that data."
Now, having data in the cloud is just one part of the equation. You also need to connect everything to a single source of truth.
This is where platforms come in.
Read more: Cloud-Based Platforms Connect People, Processes, and Data
Andrew states, "The critical part of the platform is data flow because data comes from different places. We'll never have a construction universe where data feeds in from one pipeline."
"You're always going to have data feeding in from other pipelines. So your platform needs to be able to pull in data from multiple places, but rationalize it and make it visible and actionable to people."
The most successful and enduring companies are highly customer-centric. This is something that Andrew—and everyone at Autodesk—recognize fully.
"Keeping the customer at the center of that journey is super important," he says.
Part of doing that lies in exploring different paths and figuring out which route will best serve the customer. From there, Andrew says it's all about bringing users onto that course and then supporting them every step of the way.
"We know that what we've done with Autodesk Construction Cloud is by far the most sustainable path we're on," remarks Andrew.
“We have to bring customers over to that in a high trust way, in a high success way, so that we get them on the highway to the future so that we don't tack in such a way that disrupts them. And I'm committed to not doing that and I think the whole entire team is committed to getting them on the right path.”
He concludes, "I think we've built a hell of an ecosystem, and we're heading in the right direction."
Autodesk's Digital Builder podcast is hosted by me, Eric Thomas. New episodes go live every two weeks.
Watch (or listen) to the episode for more about Andrew's vision for the future of construction, his experience working at Autodesk, and the legacy he hopes to leave the industry as CEO of the company.
Catch this special episode of Digital Builder by watching the entire video or listening to the podcast on:
