I always write a post to follow up on my attendance at Autodesk University (AU). This post is a bit different. It includes AU2025, but also some other stuff too. I hope you don’t mind and enjoy the diverse content!
I took a week off after AU. This was my first ‘official’ week off after an AU in nineteen years. Nineteen Autodesk Universities where I have been an AU Speaker, an Autodesk Expert Elite, an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Subject Matter Expert (SME – previously Speaker Mentor). It was also my first year as a Global eTraining Ambassador (I’ll get to that later).
Trust me, I needed that week off. Whilst the week off was already planned for downtime, it followed my first AU where I was ill during the event. On the Wednesday evening at AU as I prepared to go to numerous parties and gatherings, I succumbed to what was the worst migraine and shaking I have ever experienced (I do get occasional migraines – but this was off the scale – I could not even see at one point). It also included some of the vilest nausea I have ever had to accompany the migraine too. I went to bed and even avoided the Train concert on the Thursday night, as I did not want to catch any other lurgies before my flights home. Unfortunately, it followed me home, and decided to infect my wife as well, so the two weeks after AU week were spent in recovery mode. Oh, the joys of international business travel, right?
Anyway, enough of my illnesses and woes. Let’s get into AU2025 and beyond!
HP, AMD and AI – Subject Matter Expert (SME) at AU2025
On the plus side of AI, as a subject matter expert, I often get to play with some incredibly cool tech that relates to me being an experienced AutoCAD and Revit user. The new AI technology in the HP ZBook Ultra G1a, powered by the AMD Ryzen™ AI MAX+ processor with integrated AMD Radeon™ 8060S graphics is something else. The graphics technology is integrated and can be set to pull up to 96GB of graphics memory. Not too shabby, right? Plus, it is recognized by AutoCAD 2026, allowing for incredible versatility and speed when drafting and modeling in AutoCAD.
I had the pleasure of preparing, and presenting, my AU2026 class using the HP ZBook Ultra G1a, and I have to say, if you haven’t looked at it yet, as a mobile workstation, you really should! A 14-inch laptop that is small, but mighty!
I also spent some time on the AMD booth, working as an AutoCAD and Revit SME, discussing how the new AMD Ryzen™ AI MAX+ processor with integrated AMD Radeon™ 8060S graphics works so well with AutoCAD and Revit.
You can find the HP ZBook Ultra G1a over at www.hp.com and the AMD tech over at www.amd.com.
The HP ZBook Ultra G1a running AutoCAD 2026 (with some LEGO to see how small it is!)
AU2025 – The General Keynote
I enjoy watching Andrew (Anagnost) public speaking. He has a relaxing, informal tone, with humour. And shock, horror, we had LIVE (yes, live) demonstrations this year! Andrew stayed relaxed, and I have to say, the live demos went without incident. Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE a product demo, but the emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) began to grate on me. Yes, AI is incredibly useful. Yes, AI can assist everyone in the Autodesk ecosystem, but if I hear ‘end-to-end’ or ‘no-one gets left behind’ again, you may see one of my eyes twitching uncontrollably.
Andrew Anagnost presenting the General Keynote at AU2025, Nashville, TN
Why? Well, I come from that generation of Autodesk product users that started out on a drawing board, creating drawings and designs manually. Yes, a human had to create those drawings and designs. Pens, pencils, set squares, and parallel motion bars. I see AI as a tool to become more efficient and productive, NOT to take away human interaction. We, as humans, are the creativity, the embryo of any idea or design. For example, this post. This post is written by me. It is not automatically generated by ChatGPT and just shipped out to get likes and comments. I write from my heart, just as I also design, draw, teach, and learn from my heart. Too many corporations are betting their shirts on AI, and whilst I know that Autodesk will do so as well, they will (I hope) ensure that their user base is not neglected. Autodesk has millions of PRODUCT users. These include AutoCAD users, Revit users, Civil3D users, Inventor users, Fusion users, and the list goes on. Many of these users have invested countless hours (and money) learning their craft. They are proud of their knowledge and ability, and their employers value them highly, as they can communicate design intent in a way that is precise, accurate and makes sure that a conceptual idea is made real. Think about that Autodesk mantra from a while back “Make Anything”. We are now at the next iteration of that mantra, “Let There Be Anything”, and without those highly trained, empowered Autodesk product users, there would not be anything, right? Human interaction is paramount when communicating ideas and designs. A sterile AI environment would be soulless and remove any art or craft from what we do. Sure, use AI to make that interaction better, but also ensure that the human soul of design remains.
Autodesk users must learn. They learn from experts like me, an Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI) in an Autodesk Training Centre (ATC). People always learn from people. Even if the training content is online (think Global eTraining, for example), it is still recorded by a person, not AI. That person’s expertise, persona, an charisma is needed to put across the necessary content to learn from.
I am seeing too many AI users post utter balderdash online, after creating an article using AI. The article then being incorrect, non-factual, and misleading. It can cause others to use software products incorrectly, and lead to bad habits during the design process. Trust me, look at your LinkedIn feed. It is full of AI-generated detritus that has no place in our AECO industry.
AI is not the be-all and end-all. Yes, it is a paradigm change. That bit I wholly accept and applaud. Take the AI tools in AutoCAD, for example. I sure wish they had been around when I was a CAD user and CAD manager, but we need to realise that we MUST treat AI with caution. It is the same as any computer-based/technical workflow. If you put rubbish into it, you will get rubbish out of it. Yes, use it for efficiency. Yes, use it to save time, and avoid the repetitive, onerous tasks, but don’t let it remove the humanity in our design world. What we have when we design is an individual creativity, where we can spot an individual style. Look at Charles Eames or Frank Lloyd Wright. You just know the design is theirs. The same goes for a Monet or a Picasso. You just know who created it, and that individuality should be celebrated, not replicated at leisure by an AI agent in ChatGPT or otherwise.
What am I getting at, you may ask. Well, I see thousands of Autodesk users now wondering if their roles are safe. And yes, I know I am repeating that doubting Thomas diatribe here, but are they safe? Is that single mum, working every hour she has as a freelance AutoCAD drafter still going to be able to feed her kids? I hope so. I hope that Autodesk continue to support their hero product users with increased AI assistance to remove the onerous repetition, and allow for more design-related activity, to enhance efficiency and productivity.
Sadly, for me, the General Keynote did not reinforce that. All I heard for most of it was everything now begins with Forma, and that AI will be end-to-end, with no-one getting left behind (cue the eye twitching).
AU2025 – The AutoCAD Customer Advisory Board (CAB)
On the Monday morning of Day Zero of AU2025, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the AutoCAD Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting. I have wanted to attend one of these for some years and was excited (and honoured) to attend! It was a very informative event, with a heads-up about the direction Autodesk is following. Yes, AI was a part of that discussion but so was involving Autodesk customers in the future development of AutoCAD.
I found the CAB to be incredibly informative, and user oriented. Autodesk did a great job in involving us in the roundtable discussions and Post-it note exercises to provide interactivity and the ability to get our voices heard in what we want to see in AutoCAD in the future.
Thank you, Autodesk, for the opportunity to attend and contribute. It was a highly valuable event and wholly worthwhile.
(and thank you for such a cool Autodesk mug!)
That cool Autodesk mug!
The AutoCAD Customer Advisory Board (CAB) – Group Photo – AU2025
AU2025 – The Expert Elite (EE) Summit
I was lucky enough to make the lunchtime and afternoon session of the Expert Elite Summit after attending the AM session of the AutoCAD CAB, and I was SO glad I did! Not only was it held at the bar owned by Jon Bon Jovi called JBJ’s on Broadway in Nashville (a bucket list location for me), but I was also able to attend the fireside chat with Dara Treseder, Amy Bunszel, and Vikram Dutt. Not only was the fireside chat a great way to ask Autodesk questions at a corporate level, but it also allowed me to (finally) meet Dara Treseder, the Autodesk CMO.
The AU2025 Expert Elite Summit Group Photo – JBJ’s, Nashville, TN
The Expert Elite Summit Fireside Chat (L-R: Dara Treseder, Amy Bunszel, Vikram Dutt)
Jon Bon Jovi’s Takamine guitar on display at JBJ’s
The afternoon was full of camaraderie, Unconference table conversations, and it really felt like a true Expert Elite event. Many discussions took place which I sincerely hope will improve the Expert Elite program going forward.
Thank you, Autodesk Community team. It felt special to be there, and I know you all worked incredibly hard to make it happen. Here’s to next year, and to more Expert Elite improvements and productivity!
After the EE Summit, there was a wonderful EE social gathering at the Hank Williams Jr. rooftop bar. Hanging out with the Expert Elite family I have known for many years was full of laughter, fun, and cowboy hats!
The Expert Elites relaxing after the EE Summit at the Hank Williams Jnr rooftop bar (hats optional!)
It does look like I am falling over, but I had my laptop backpack on! LOL.
AU2025 – The Design & Make Awards
Sometimes, as an Autodesk Expert Elite, we get invited to some VERY cool events. This was one of them. The Autodesk Design & Make Awards are presented each year at AU, and this year, as Expert Elites, we were invited to attend the award ceremony. Seeing the incredible innovations and contributions that were awarded made for a great evening.
And on top of enjoying the awards, we were able to see some Expert Elites being awarded too! I am incredibly proud of Shelby L Smith winning the award for AEC Community Leader of the Year Award. A fellow Expert Elite, Shelby was my AU Speaker Mentee for AU2024, and since then, has become a close friend, and to see her being rewarded for all her efforts in the AECO industry made attending the awards even more worthwhile.
And on top of that, we also saw another Expert Elite, Mike Thomas, receive a Design & Make award too, on behalf of the company Rokion.
Well played, Expert Elites!
Shelby L Smith receiving her award from Vikram Dutt
Mike Thomas receiving his award from Vikram Dutt
Global eTraining (GeT)
Some of you may have seen my recent post on LinkedIn, confirming I am now a Global eTraining (GeT) Ambassador. I now represent GeT and promote their training and learning content.
Meeting with the Global eTraining team in Nashville (in the green cowboy hats!)
You can find the GeT website at https://www.globaletraining.ca/
On the front page of the website, you will see their statement: –
“Revolutionary AI-powered training to elevate human potential.
Close digital skills gaps. Confirm project-ready teams. Drive technology adoption”.
AU2025 stressed the importance of addressing what is an ever-increasing skills gap in the AECO industries. THIS is where AI is paramount. GeT have embraced AI and built what is an exceptional learning platform. This platform does not just include Autodesk products either. They are vendor-agnostic, and that aligns with my current thoughts when it comes to learning. We MUST consider everyone when it comes to learning. It must be democratic, and all-encompassing, to make sure that ALL who learn are empowered with their new knowledge, to improve and strive for perfection. This learning should not be competitive by product, either. The skill gaps in AECO is massive, and to ensure that future generations are ready to hit the ground running, and to fill those necessary gaps in each AECO industry, learning has to be totally agnostic to cover ALL bases, making sure of a complete skill set, regardless of software vendor, to be competitive and adaptable.
It is this AI-based, democratic approach that GeT have adapted that has made me proud to wear that GeT green cowboy hat (not all the time, I hasten to add), and work with them to train anyone and everyone. Their training content can be used individually, or with project teams to get them up to speed, and at an organisational level, where the company can provide overall company training, to ensure appropriate learning benchmarks are reached and maintained. Their ‘Knowledge Banks’ approach is second to none and combined with their investment in always improving what they offer, they are the world leaders.
THIS is the approach is where no-one will get left behind. Democratising learning and addressing the gaps in that learning with AI will ensure that all of us can make sure we keep our existing roles and provide impact in our companies and organisations. Or, better still, we learn new skills for new roles, utilising AI to guide our training objectives as we move forward. It is a human approach, combined with AI, rather than a corporate approach that will pay dividends in the long term.
Autodesk Learning Partners (ALP)
As an Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI), I work closely with the wonderful team in the Autodesk Learning Partners (ALP) program. And this time at AU, the ALP team had a booth for the first time! I was lucky to spend some time with them, and I was even able to do a dry run of my AU class to a small audience, which was great fun! Presenting to a smaller audience in such an intimate setting is often harder than presenting to a large AU audience, so the rehearsal was much appreciated.
Being an ACI is a privilege, and it was great to connect with the ALP team in Nashville this year!
You can find the ALP page on the Autodesk website here.
Celebrating The Drafters
As I mentioned earlier, I started out as a drafter back in 1988. Working on a drawing board, before transitioning to a new, uber-cool, computer-aided design tool, called AutoCAD. The shift to CAD back then was a huge paradigm shift, a bit like the move to AI is now.
Little did I know that my future career would be all about AutoCAD and CAD in general. With over thirty-seven years of AutoCAD experience under my belt, I am now able to help others move forward with AutoCAD, by providing learning and training, including being a Speaker at AU2025. You can find my most recent AU2025 class here: –
The above class includes AutoCAD AI tools, but what it also demonstrates is that we can use AI and combine it with regular AutoCAD tools to communicate our designs. What the class does is empower those who draft with AutoCAD. Here’s a couple of quotes from the responses I had in my AU2025 class survey: –
“This class has real content that I can take back to my office and institute tomorrow”
“He knew his stuff and encouraged everyone in the session to keep learning and asking questions”
I teach and instruct, because I want to impart my knowledge to others, to empower them to their next step in their learning. Learning, especially now, is a continual process, and I want to teach and impart the expertise I have picked up in 37 years of AutoCAD experience, so that others can utilise my knowledge to move forward.
Part of that experience, over thirty years ago, was that I was taught there was a symbiotic relationship between the drafter and the engineer. As a CAD manager, I became the facilitator of that relationship in the company where I worked. Over recent years, I have seen the quality of drafting fall. It’s one of the reasons I strive for excellence with my AU classes involving AutoCAD. I want to help others improve and develop that relationship and strive for excellence in their CAD skill set. Sadly, what I am also seeing is a hybrid ‘designer’ role, where designers and engineers draft without a draftsperson, and drawing quality drops. In an ideal AECO world, there should be two separate roles; draftsperson AND designer/engineer.
A recent post on LinkedIn from Michael Regan, really resonated with me. Michael is an industry expert in manufacturing, specialising in CAD design. You will find the link to the post here.
Michael comments that specialised drafters and modelers are critical, because most engineers are not strong in CAD because they were never trained to be. Their education was built around formulas, analysis, and design theory, not creating production-ready drawings or models. Nowadays, the problem is that companies expect engineers to both design complex systems and produce flawless CAD drawings and that is completely unrealistic.
This is the reason why specialized drafters and modelers MUST have a symbiotic relationship with designers and engineers. They can take their design intent and communicate it into precise models and drawings without quality breaking down.
The best quote from Michael’s post is his comment about drafting and modeling: –
“That is not a side task. It is the backbone of execution”.
Read the post to understand more about Michael’s perspective and note my comment agreeing with him. We must respect the role of the drafter/modeler, and ensure that there are TWO roles, symbiotically linked, to communicate design and engineering, both accurately, and quickly.
In conclusion
To conclude my somewhat lengthy blog post, I just want to end on a quote that many of my CAD and BIM geek family will understand and empathise with. It comes from a NSFW article by The Oatmeal, a well-known cartoonist: –
“Someone once told me that art is like emotional nutrition. That made sense to me. Art feeds my feelings. And if that’s the case, consuming AI art is like eating Styrofoam”.
The whole article can be found here, and bear in mind, it is a somewhat irreverent article with bad language and adult themes and comments, so beware! It does, however, get the point across about AI.
AI is here. It is not going away, but we need to exercise caution as we move forward with it. Should the humanity leave our design world and AI takes away our humanity and empathy in learning our craft, the world will become a very sterile place. Ask yourself this. Do you want a world without Picasso, Turner, or Monet? Do you want architects to aspire to ChatGPT, rather than Zaha Hadid, Sir Terry Farrell, or Franklin Lloyd Wright, when it comes to design?
I know what I would rather have, and that is a world that contains humanity, in all its forms.
Here’s a picture of a group of Autodesk University legends that AI will never replace. The expertise, experience, and knowledge in this one photo speaks volumes and I am proud and honoured to class each of them as a friend also. THIS is what AU means to me. The HUMAN connection to friends like these. My AU family.
AU legends (L-R: Shaun ‘CADjedi’ Bryant, Matt Murphy, Robert Green, David Butts, Todd Rogers, Donnie Gladfelter, Argelia Barcena, Dzan Ta)
Speaking of AU family, there’s one AU legend who I cannot leave out. Donnia Tabor-Hanson aka CADmama. This incredible lady has been part of my AU since I started at AU back in 2006. Nashville was her last AU before retirement. A force of nature, with a heart the size of a small planet, I will miss her dulcet Southern tones when we reconnect at AU next year. Much love to you, Donnia, and what an AU legacy you leave behind.
Catching up with Donnia (CADmama) in Nashville
I’ll leave all that humanity with you to consider, and in the meantime, stay tuned for the imminent Not Just CAD podcast from AU2025 in Nashville. We have some great guests, and some interesting conversations for you!
Apple: https://apple.co/3YO3ZEX
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4fOdfin
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PS – Check out the new Getting Started with AutoCAD course over on Udemy! Created by a human, for humans who want to start using AutoCAD! You will find it here!
PPS – You can find ALL my LinkedIn Learning AutoCAD content here too!