Autodesk Inc at UBS Global Technology and AI Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>So maybe to jump right in, I think a good place to start would be the news that we just got last week to the appointment of Janesh as the CFO. Andrew, one, I know that you mentioned on the call that part of like the focus was finding someone to drive optimization and scale. When I hear that, that sounds a focus on margins. But I would love, one, could you elaborate on your thoughts there? And then two, maybe you could give some examples of what you've seen in Janesh's career that you think is applicable to Autodesk.

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. Appreciate all those thoughts. And I think all the investors in the room are very keen on hearing what you guys are seeing in terms of demand trends. So I'd love for each of you to share, what are you hearing from customers? Are we at the point of, maybe some green shoots, but I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts on that.

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. And maybe just to expand on that, I think there's a view that for companies like Autodesk that have exposure to some of the most cyclical sensitive customers that when we start to see evidence of a recovery that you would be a big beneficiary of that. And so I ask, in that type of scenario, could you see growth accelerate? Maybe there's parts of the business that would be more sensitive to that? Because I know you've talked a lot in the past how maybe you're less sensitive to some of these cycles because of the transition to subscription. Steve, you just mentioned some of the labor shortages and maybe that's something to keep in mind. I would love if you could expand on that. And then two, just what you're hearing from customers in terms of if it's very stable today. When do they expect to see that turnaround?

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Is there any big changes or differences that you're seeing across the different products? Because you guys obviously have products in a number of areas. So is there some that might be more sensitive or some that maybe you are seeing signs of green shoots, where others still are a little bit sluggish? Anything to comment on that?

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. And another hot topic is the new transaction model and the rollout of that. So Steve, maybe one for you would just be, what are you hearing in terms of customer feedback now you're rolling in across the developed markets? Any differences between what you're seeing in North America, Europe, and Japan versus maybe what you saw in Australia? And as a second question, not to throw too many questions at you, but I think one thing that us and investors have picked in is you have had some partners talking about maybe a little bit of disruption in the onboarding. So one, is there any truth that you would imagine that there probably would be bumps along the way? But anything to consider near term to be mindful of.

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. That was great color. And on this topic, Andrew, on the last 3Q earnings call, you said the new transaction model will enable tighter channel partnerships with the last duplication of effort. You talked about more digital self-service and automation, and then you also talked about how it's going to create new opportunities for partners and Autodesk to earn more with less emphasis on transaction revenue sharing and a greater emphasis on value creation for your customers. So, Andrew and Steve, maybe you could both could elaborate on what was meant by those comments. Like what is this optimization phase that you're referring to and how is that going to drive revenue and margin?

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : That was great color. And on this, Steve, you mentioned a lot about all the transformation and there's been a lot of transitions over the last few years. So when you think about what that means for the end state, Andrew, I'd love if you could give a little bit more color there. I don't know if there's companies out there in the tech landscape today that have models that maybe you guys are trying to replicate, something that might be more tangible for the audience. But what are your thoughts on what that ultimately looks like? And if this new transaction model is the end or if there's more to come.

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. Let's talk about the platform opportunity. So Andrew, you mentioned that there was a lot of work in going into the back end, right? And making sure you fix that. So when you think about what you guys are doing to facilitate the cross-sell motion, any color that you could provide there, and this will probably tie in Construction Cloud. You guys have made a lot of interesting announcements on wins and customer trends, customer momentum that you're seeing there. So when we think about Construction Cloud, Fusion, and Forma, any sense that you could give us of the scale of those businesses today and when they could start to be more material drivers of growth?

Question: Taylor McGinnis - UBS - Analyst : Perfect. And maybe since this is AI conference, we'll end on AI. So I'd love to hear what you guys are seeing in terms of traction and momentum for Autodesk AI and Project Bernini. So when we think about AI, I know in the work that we've done, it seems like there's a lot of applicability to the industries that you serve. But when you compare AI to other areas of software, there's lots of hype in what Salesforce and ServiceNow are doing. So just curious, why do you think that is? Where are we in the demand trajectory? And how are you guys thinking about monetization?