The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>Absolutely. Now we can talk. Well, listen, guys, thanks a ton for coming. A lot of great stuff to talk about here with Autodesk.
But maybe, Simon, just to level set for us before we dive in with Mike, can you just recap a few of the most important points
you wanted us to know coming out of the last call, just so that we're all on the same page.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Absolutely. That's a good summary and there's a lot to dig into there as well. But Mike, maybe to start with you. This is your
first Barclays tech conference with. Hopefully, the first of many. Yes, absolutely. But maybe for those of us that are meeting
for the first time, can you just give us a little bit of a brief background on yourself and your mandate in your current role?
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: That is -- that cycle time, in particular, something that I hadn't thought about. Maybe just to build on that a little bit, though,
Mike, and maybe to dig into some of the individual areas of Autodesk's business. I want to start with the architecture piece of
course, anchored by your leading tool Revit. Maybe the high level question I want to ask is, how is generative AI going to
change the daily life for an architect in your view, if at all
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Yes. That's super interesting, Simon, maybe to follow up for you on that point. I mean, in application software, we've all sort
of debated about kind of seats and value, particularly this year. Maybe to Mike's point, as Autodesk sort of enhances that
productivity of an engineer of an architect, how do the -- how do you think the economics here could change? I mean, could
there be fewer seats, but maybe more value that Autodesk earns? Curious just in general how you think about that?
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DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 6:25PM, ADSK.OQ - Autodesk Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: That's interesting.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Yes, absolutely. That's really interesting in terms of how to monetize time and how that might become a bigger vector. Mike,
maybe from just a product perspective in architecture, what can customers leverage now in terms of generative AI from
Autodesk? And to Simon's point, just around sort of the different industry clouds, do these customers eventually need to move
to forma, right, in order to eventually kind of gain the those capabilities?
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Yes, absolutely. I want to move to construction, right? So we talked about our (multiple speakers) -- right, the next piece, of
course, right? And Simon, maybe it's for you. I mean, picking up off of architecture and moving to Autodesk Construction Cloud
or ACC. Can you just remind us what you've said on just the growth rates of that business? I feel like it's been very healthy
and certainly reflecting market share gains. Maybe that related question then would be why do you feel like ACC is gaining
market share.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Yes. Absolutely. I certainly shows. Mike, maybe just on that point, I mean construction, meaning out in the field, right? Like it's
such an intense workflow, right, just in terms of the communication, all the changes that are happening, maybe a similar
question we talked about with architecture earlier, but you kind of think about the opportunities for leveraging AI in (multiple
speakers) --
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: We talked so much about product and AI. I think one of the things that is helping with this, right, is actually the agency model
shift, right? Because now it creates such -- so much of a closer tie-in between Autodesk and the end customer, right? Obviously,
the partner is still very important, but I think there's a little bit more of a direct connection between Autodesk and the customer.
And so I'd love to shift to this topic a little bit and maybe start with you, Simon, because I think we're getting into the later
stages of that shift. Maybe the question is just for some of us that are kind of fine-tuning our models, how should we sort of
think about that revenue benefit as we go into next year?
And of course, I don't expect you to give a numerical answer exactly, but what are some of the breadcrumbs that you've given
as we think about sort of that underlying growth rate of the business, which I think has been pretty healthy, plus whatever
mechanical items might be on top of that.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Absolutely. I think that's very thoughtful. And of course, maybe bringing the topic of margins back a little bit. I mean, Mike, I
think Autodesk went through an optimization exercise of its workforce earlier this year that -- I think part of that exercise was
to enhance resources and kind of growing parts of the business like generative AI. So maybe the question it's a bit broader
is what are the areas that you want to be investing in, in '27? As you think about that quicker product cycle?
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Understand.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Definitely a theme in both of your answers in terms of, hey, we've done a lot of the hard work that a lot of our competitors
haven't.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. For sure. Simon, I want to go back to the model, right, and just maybe just to put a bow on the
margin discussion. One of the things that, frankly, I've struggled with a little bit as I think about the model is kind of the shape
of margin expansion between now and fiscal '29, right?
You mentioned the target of 41% and as you said, as Ganesh said, that path should be nonlinear. But he's also said that fiscal
'27 should really bear the full brunt of the new model, which, of course, implies lower margin. So I just wanted to ask how you
kind of thought about it because I kind of thought about the revenue impact should sort of be incrementally less next year.
And therefore, the margin impact will be incrementally less. But I just want to make sure I tie out my thinking with how --
(multiple speakers)
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Okay. So maybe to summarize that, I mean, it seems like the dollar impact of the transition really I mean if I use the word peak,
right, it should really kind of peak next year in terms of the dollar impact, but the incremental margin impact, to your point, it's
been cumulative, right? So we should be thinking about -- understood. Correct.
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Understood. Very clear. Maybe I want to just to ask one last modeling question, then I want to wrap up with Mike. I mean just
to shift to billings here, Simon. I mean we'll be finishing the invoicing transition, I think, in Q1 of '27. So it sounds like we should
see still billings pretty healthy through Q1.
But I think with long-term deferred, only kind of mid- to high single digits of total deferred at the end of the year. Should there
be anything that really drives the difference between kind of underlying revenue and underlying billings growth going forward?
Or should those two kind of starts to approach each other?
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: Correct. Absolutely. Well, listen, in the last minute that we've got left, Mike, I've got a fun question for you. I mean just -- as we
think about that cycle time is a really interesting point that I haven't thought about, right? Which is just the amount of product
development that you could be doing over the next year. When we're sitting here on the stage in a year from today, what are
some of the milestones and the innovation that you want to be talking about as we look back on calendar '26?
Question: Saket Kalia - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst
: It sounds like it will be a fun year, though. -- Well, with that, I couldn't think of a better way to end. Mike, Simon, thanks so much
for being with us here today.
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DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 6:25PM, ADSK.OQ - Autodesk Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference
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