AI Transformation (Part I of V)
Artificial Intellegence isn’t a Tech Project. It’s a Thinking Project.
There’s a stubborn myth that AI transformation is something the “tech people” will handle.
It isn’t.
The companies that thrive in the AI era aren’t the ones with the fanciest models — they’re the ones where the entire leadership team understands what AI makes possible, and where makers at every level know how to use it.
Autodesk is right in the middle of this shift.
AI isn’t a research project anymore; it’s becoming the connective tissue across design, make, and operate.
Our CEO, Andrew Anagnost puts it plainly:
“If coding models can write the code, what matters most is systems-level and interdisciplinary thinking.”
That sentence is a turning point. It moves the focus from writing things to connecting things. From specialists to systems thinkers. From narrow expertise to whole-picture understanding.
This is why Autodesk is so well positioned.
Our tools have always lived at the intersection of disciplines — architecture meets engineering meets construction meets manufacturing meets media. AI is simply accelerating what our customers have always done: think across boundaries.
And this is where the conversation naturally expands beyond technology.
Because if AI speeds up the work, something else must elevate the work.
That “something else” is how we think.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll explore how ‘human thinking’ combines with AI to make a powerful force — and how insights from our friend and workout buddy, author Sarah Tucker, and her work on Edward de Bono, help us understand the skills we’ll need next.
Here’s where we’re headed:
- Part II — The New Creative Advantage: System Thinkers, Not Specialists
- Part III — Lateral Thinking for the Next Generation
- Part IV — How Adults Break Patterns, Challenge Assumptions, and Innovate in the AI Era
- Part V — Why AI (and RELEVANCE) Demands Lateral Thinking Now
AI is changing what we can do.
But how we think will determine what we choose to do.
Make Anything Thursday!
