Autodesk University 2026, Day 3
Sorry for the lack of writing in the early morning. If you wonder if I woke up again yesterday at 3:00, no; actually, I finally woke up at 6:00 a.m., my regular London wake-up time. But of course, my bedtime yesterday was completely ruined by the Autodesk party and gambling for the first time in my life; yes, I lasted 3 AU Vegas without gambling, but there always has to be a first time for everything.
Anyway, Day 3 was my day of presentation; solidarity with the Thursday speakers, we actually made it! My talk was at 1:30 p.m., so I genuinely thought that no one was going to be there, but to my pleasant surprise, there was a line when I arrived. My hot takes and cold truths debate went well, I think. I have never done a presentation with another person as a debate or chat, so I think it was fun to try another format; maybe next year I will do the AEC tech stand-up comedy show, I will see.
Then I had a couple more customer engagements that day and colleague catch-ups, and we wrapped up the whole thing, another week of surviving AU, as many folks hear me say. For someone like me, who in my daily life loves routine and solitude, conferences are, as I would say, A VIBE. But what makes them worth it is that every time I am at one of them, I get to see colleagues and friends and meet customers. On top of that, I always have a bit of an epiphany moment, a moment of clarity.
Since AI clarity is more difficult to materialise, in my view, I am not sure if it is because of the nature of the technology itself, the fast advancement, or the constant bombardment of news. At times, I very much feel I want to take a break, dedicate myself to feeding my mum's chickens and playing with the dog, and, on one of those days, while picking eggs, a moment of clarity will come to me, and I will come back to all this madness. As a historian, I feel it is very difficult to have perspective in the middle of it all, and I guess I am suffering from that. Some random thoughts my fried brain is pulling off right now:
Systems thinking is more important now than it was before, complex systems needs to be in there constantly. Understanding “elements, interconnections and purpose” is fundamental to establishing a good foundation, and not limiting the foundation to what we think are the phases of the built environment is critical to maximising the output.
Clicking is not the only way folks will work in the built environment. I do still struggle with the idea of prompting as a design process, but I am hoping someone comes up with something else; if I do, I'll let you know.
The biggest challenges of the AEC industry will benefit from AI, but to have a meaningful impact, one needs to go back to my first point and analyse the industry as a complex system.
Many presentations I saw this week show what I was doing in industry over 7 years ago; the industry has not really embraced the implementation of standards at scale, so technology becomes a conundrum to add to the list. Sad.
Following standards doesn't necessarily mean teams embrace innovation; it just means they have a good foundation, which I guess is an important first step. But also sad.
I opened Revit for the first time in 2007; I played with AutoCAD as a teenager. It is 2026, and I am 41. I feel conversations have changed and things have improved, but the reality is that the built environment is complex, and there are lots of sectors that have not caught up at all. Why? It is something I do not have enough data points to answer.
Now, the 10-hour flight back. Catch you all in the next one.
Thanks for this cutie Mark, this comes to my office.
