Autodesk University 2024 delivered an inspiring keynote by President and CEO Andrew Anagnost, offering a bold vision for the future of AI, sustainability, and how these transformative forces are set to reshape industries. This year’s keynote featured in-depth conversations with Casey Wasserman, Chairperson of LA28, and Raji Arasu, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Autodesk. Together, they explored Autodesk’s groundbreaking role in the upcoming LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, its application of artificial intelligence (AI) across industries, and the lasting impact of technology in a rapidly changing world.
AI for Practical Transformation
Anagnost opened with a candid discussion about the gap between AI’s hype and its current usefulness. He acknowledged that while much of AI’s promise remains unfulfilled, Autodesk is laser-focused on creating AI tools that deliver practical solutions today. “Technologies come with a lot of hype, but our focus at Autodesk is on AI that works for you today, delivering tangible productivity and creativity gains,” Anagnost said. His message was clear: Autodesk is driving AI innovation that empowers users across industries, from architecture to manufacturing to entertainment.
One of the standout initiatives presented was Project Bernini, Autodesk’s groundbreaking AI model. Bernini allows designers to generate fully realized 3D objects in minutes, a process that would have traditionally taken hours or even days. This AI tool is already proving to be a game-changer in streamlining design workflows, with the potential to enhance creativity while eliminating repetitive tasks.
“Bernini exemplifies how AI can augment your creativity and productivity,” said Arasu, emphasizing that Autodesk’s AI is designed to solve real-world problems, not just theoretical challenges. Arasu elaborated on how Bernini allows designers to prompt AI using natural language, sketches, or images, creating a new era of rapid ideation. “We want AI to enhance your skills, not replace them. The creative work that you do is so complex and so special—AI cannot solve for your ingenuity,” Arasu said.
It is an interesting time to be working in the AEC industry, and I feel grateful for having experienced the past 25+ years immersed in it from an editorial perspective.
Predictions for the coming year are shaped by history and the current moment, and where we see the future unfolding. Both Adam Klatzin, vice president, Business Development for the iTwin Platform at Bentley Systems and Allison Scott, director of Construction Thought Leadership, Autodesk Construction Solutions, write about what realities have shaped catalysts for current and future development.
At the heart of content creation are the machines that we run programs on.
On the cutting edge as usual, NVIDIA presented at CES a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas, bringing with them a plethora of new developments. Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s GeForce business, announced more than 160 thin-and-light laptops using RTX 30 Series GPUs in a smorgasbord of mobile designs.
Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of NVIDIA’s GeForce business
Much of 2021’s important news had to do with response to climate change, coupled with the Covid-19 response for businesses. Technologies have been in place for many years to respond, but the time is now, and actually the time is yesterday, to respond to these critical social and environmental issues. Digital twin technology and artificial intelligence are front and center in addressing these challenges. Reducing the world’s carbon footprint is a major priority for most organizations and technologies are being lined up to address this priority.
CEO Jensen Huang presented the keynote at the recent GTC21 NVIDIA Conference, November 8-11, sharing with the audience the importance of accelerated computing and much more. The announcements were so prolific and not all pertinent to the AEC industry, thus I will share those that would be of most interest to our audience. One of the most profound announcements came at the end of the talk, wherein Huang announced that they are building a digital twin of the earth.
Zac Hays, head of product, preconstruction for Autodesk Construction Solutions, spoke this week with AECCafe Voice about Autodesk’s new BuildingConnected, a building platform to which new building project data can be posted and shared.
Zac Hays, head of product, preconstruction for Autodesk Construction Solutions
Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO of Autodesk gave the keynote at the general session of the second Autodesk University 2021 Virtual in October. He spoke of how customers and employees had to experience a decade of change in 18 months that some were not ready for. “Even before social distancing and remote – platforms were connecting consumers and producers, and mobile devices were bringing everyone together,” said Anagnost. “Sometimes it’s felt like technology has kept us apart. We saw human ingenuity at a greater pace and scale. We face uncertainty. You make things that make tomorrow a better place. Everyone here are innovators and solve big and small problems, and technology is a force multiplier of your ingenuity.
This week at Autodesk University 2021 (Virtual) IMAGINiT Technologies showed off their new task automation Space Programming Module add-on for IMAGINiT Clarity that tackles common space planning challenges that firms face on complex architectural projects. In addition to this optional, add-on module, the new 2022.1 version of IMAGINiT Clarity also now features a variety of tools that enhance integrations and model metrics for Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD users.
This past week NVIDIA announced the NVIDIA RTX A2000 at SIGGRAPH 2021, a redefinition of the mainstream, professional GPU, which expands access to the power of NVIDIA RTX and represents an expansion of the NVIDIA Omniverse.
