Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Perfect. I want to welcome everyone to our Emerging Technology Summit. I'm Jason Celino, the analyst that covers Autodesk here. This is the first session of the day. So hopefully, everyone had a pretty good breakfast. With me today is Amy Bunszel with Autodesk, she leads the Architecture, Engineering and Construction business. And then we have Simon Mays-Smith, the IR person everyone knows.

So maybe with the first question as a warm up, right? So Amy, you lead the Architecture, Engineering and Construction business. But with Jim Lynch retiring, can you just maybe describe the responsibilities that you had before and what you're getting new from Jim, and maybe we'll start there.

I've got to read the fireside chat, instead it just disappeared from my candidate because somebody pinged me the thing because it disappeared. Anyway, we may make forward-looking statements and you should read our 10-K for all the risks in front of us, because I've lost the actual wording in front.

I'm surprised you didn't memorize it. But Amy, why don't you talk about your new -- not new role, but like, the change.

Yes. So Jim Lynch is retiring. And as you know, Jim spent the last 5 years building our Construction business to be a material part of Autodesk. And so last year -- 2 years ago, we started integrating sales. Last year, we integrated marketing and product, and this is kind of our final transition. So I'll be responsible for both our design and make business in -- across the AECO. So that's products you know and love like Revit and AutoCAD and Civil and now the entire construction portfolio as well as our Forma industry cloud.

Okay. Excellent. And then I did want to just touch on some topical questions from the earnings call. But I think the most of the time will be spent on your Construction and Infrastructure businesses. So last week, still very fresh. I think you announced some restructuring. Maybe can you just describe how your sales organizations that are under you operate today? And maybe what they'll look like going forward? Or I guess what....

Yes. So yes, in answer, reduction in force last week, 3,950 people, roughly about 9%. And really sort of 2 things going on. One bucket is our go-to-market optimization, which we've been talking about for a while, and I'll talk a bit about that in a second what we're doing there. And then secondly, it's around reallocating internal resources to our strategic priorities and also making sure that we've got the right people in the right place, distributing them across the globe, and I'll talk a bit about that in a second as well. So in terms of the first bucket, we've talked a bunch about our new transaction model and how we have built a new billing platform. Over the last sort of 18 months or so, we've been executing on the process of implementing the transition to the new billing platform. And now we're sort of kicking off the start of the, what we call the optimization phase where we realize the efficiencies of that. And really, we're starting that in things like the marketing org and the customer success org, which is consolidating teams together to drive efficiency in the process and also reinvesting for the next phase of efficiency as well. And so that's going to be a sort of multiple sort of phased process. And so it's really just sort of kicking off that process. And really with the goal of driving down our sales and marketing on an underlying basis as a percentage of revenue and driving up the margins and cash flow of the business. So that's our sort of long-term goal. I'll stop there. So you could talk about a bit more. The second bucket is really around reallocating internal resources, so taking it out of lower priority areas and putting into higher priority areas. And also there's a geolocation element to it. And 2 sort of key parts of that. One is moving people from high-cost locations to lower-cost locations, but also moving people from more geopolitically sensitive areas to less geopolitically sensitive areas as well across the globe, making sure that we have a footprint that has less risk attached to it in our engineering, in particular. So a bunch of stuff going. Reflecting that, we have tried to consider that as part of our guidance for the year, the structure that comes from those things, but we'll see how the year plays out as we go on.

And I can speak to what we did in AEC. I think the strong message there is about reallocation. So we took the opportunity to look across my entire team and see where we could optimize to go faster and invest in some of our high priority areas. So construction was built on 5, 6, 10 acquisitions. So there was definitely an opportunity to kind of reorganize that team for a faster execution and then reinvest those resources in -- back in the product and the product development. Similarly, infrastructure, in particular, transportation and water, are high-growth areas for us. So we made sure that we were aligning resources in those places to go faster.

Okay. Interesting. And then last question and I will get to the interesting stuff. But also last week, you talked about a growth framework and then...

Absence of one gift.

Well, okay, sure. You're going to say that, that way. Investors, I think, have provided feedback about your 10% to 15% growth range that we used to think about. And obviously, you haven't been hitting that range for the last couple of years. I think Janesh is cognizant of like he's coming in and reevaluating things. But I guess a lot of this is getting pushed to the Analyst Day. So I guess, what should we be expecting in a couple of quarters?

Yes. So this was a framework we put in place, well, 3 years ago as a sort of framework to sort of see us through the transition from multiyear upfront to multiyear build annually, which is when you typically put frameworks in place to sort of allow people to sort of bridge the transition. But the truth is we've been bumping along around the bottom end of that guidance range in the 10% to 15% range. And then in fiscal '26, as you know, we've guided to 8% to 9% in constant currency. So we're outside of the range. And so I think we thought that given '26 is the last year of the transition from multiyear build upfront to multiyear build annually, so it's the end of that transition and also that we have a new CFO coming in and just the first law of Investor Relations is stop banging your head on the wall if you bang your head on the wall. If you're growing below the range, then there's no point having the range in place. I think it just seems like an opportunity at the moment to take that range away. It doesn't mean we lack confidence in the growth in our markets. We still have enormous opportunity ahead, still growing faster than the vast majority of our peers, including now Procore. So we're doing very well in the context of our markets. It's just that, that was set in place 3 years ago. We've gone through that transition, and we do not intend to replace it with a new range at our Investor Day later on this year.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. I think that's probably a good segue into the construction opportunity. On these callbacks, we have with management and Simon, the question posed at the end of mine was, well, what did we not get to talk about on your earnings call, given the lack of certain element that wasn't provided, right? So one of the aspects was the construction adds or logos that you added in the quarter. Maybe speak to why do you think that was so strong and what you're doing there and how you're thinking about fine-tuning things?

Yes. So broadly, our Construction business is really firing on all cylinders now. So the 400 logos come in part because we have a great product, and we have great product market fit now. It's taken us several years to kind of consolidate in acquisitions and build our own capability. And now we're very competitive on a global basis. The other great thing is as we started doing the integration, now we're getting more leverage from all of the Autodesk sales channels. So whether it's our channel partners, our mid-market and territory reps and our navy counts and EBAs. So all of those things are working well, and we're starting to create an ecosystem where a GC may purchase the software then everyone in their ecosystem has to use the software as we go forward. The other great thing we just came back from our sales meeting is the partners are really engaged. They're almost competing with each other to see who's going to be the biggest construction partner for Autodesk in each of the geos. So they're feeling the momentum. It's definitely contributing to their overall business. And that's happening globally. One of our strengths is the international business. So we've really been able to build a product that has product market fit globally and is now really catching on, on a global basis.

Okay. I think you mentioned you being at your sales kickoff last week. I think both that's for your direct sales and your channel partners, correct? What was the mood on the T word, tariffs, I guess, did people have any -- I know it's still early, but when you look at the market today, obviously, the market's reacting to these 25% tariffs to Mexico and Canada. So curious what your sales people in the industry are thinking.

It's really hard to predict, as I think we all know. And if I go back to even customer conversations, and this is what our partners are hearing. Our customers have pretty strong backlogs. In the U.S., the construction backlog is about 8.5 months, and it's been that way for the last 2 years, plus or minus. So that hasn't changed yet. But I think there is a degree of uncertainty that in some -- played out this morning -- but in some ways, customers need to -- they need to manage what they can manage, and that's controlling their business, running their business in the best possible, most efficient way so that they can weather any particular curveball might come at them, whether it's immigration or tariffs. And so that means investing in digital solutions like Autodesk Construction Cloud and Build and all of our products because that's the only way to have a handle on what's coming in, where are the materials, who are they getting from? What can they source differently. And the other thing for us is we're a global business. So it might hurt 1 country, it might help another country or a different industry. So it hasn't -- it's uncertain, but I said it's motivating our customers to invest so that they really have a good handle on their business.

In practicality, like we all cover software, like I don't cover physical goods. How does it work? Because I don't think people like owners or construction people show up and they're like, oh, everything is 25% more, like they hold inventory that they acquired earlier, they've got these project backlogs. So like there must be some sort of time lag like what are the things that you pay tension to get a handle?

Well, for us, it's helping our customers have that handle because I think one of the challenges is, yes, they have safeguards in their contracts for certain types of puts and takes on the cost of steel or the cost of lumber. So those are baked in to some extent. So we won't see how it plays out until time goes by and those things flush through. And the new projects will be more expensive. However, we still need new roads, bridges, highways, factories, data centers. So it's a complex situation, but we're very optimistic because our customers are really resilient. The Autodesk business is resilient as a result of that, and they'll find their way to projects that are good projects for them.

Okay. Interesting. One other topic I wanted to ask within construction was your payments business, payments opportunity. I think Andrew mentioned the customer on the call adopting ACC and then also GCPay. I guess how has adoption been going? And I guess how do you see that opportunity near to medium term?

Yes. So GCPay is a payment application that helps the ecosystem get paid. And what we did there, it's a good example of our investment strategy, our acquisition strategy. So we always look at our portfolio and see where we have gaps and decide if we want to -- if we should buy it, build it or if we're going to partner for it. And so this is a place where we really wanted to buy. So we founded an industry-leading company to acquire, and it's exceeded our expectations, so it really hit a sweet spot for our customers. Right now, the business is in U.K., Ireland and Australia and the U.S. So we have a great opportunity to scale that. And the good thing about it is, it's -- right now it's an independent product. So it helps us get into some of our competitor accounts and then we can cross-sell and win their trust and get the rest of their construction business as well.

To adopt any other Autodesk products, people need...

You don't. You can start right with GCPay. Or Payapps is the other product they have, yes.

Okay. I did want to switch to infrastructure a little bit. That's been an interesting tailwind and theme over the last couple of years. I guess, how has that business been performing for you?

Very well. It's an area where we have seen high growth and expect to see high growth. And it's also a place where you need patients because a lot of the buyers are governments and public sector representatives. So we've been on a very steady pace, building momentum with the DOTs, continuing to expand there and building our internal knowledge and focus in those areas as well as advancing our product capabilities. And the combination of our design tools in infrastructure with the construction tools is really powerful. And that's how we've been able to win over some of these DOTs because as they're looking to the future, they want a solution that will last 5, 10, 20 years. So they're looking for something that's modern and delivers on the end-to-end connection between design and make.

Okay. So when you think about your DOT opportunity, is it more of like a rising tide dynamic since they're looking at their stacks and they're modernizing things and then they have funding that they were awarded I guess, or is it like are they looking to switch completely off or because your competitor has most of the DOTs in the country.

Right. So the way the DOTs work is these days are being instructed basically for certain types of projects that they have to move to digital ways of working. So that's causing them, as they're thinking about the next decade or more, just to reevaluate their solutions. And so that gives us a really great opportunity. And we're also being strategic, like we've looked at all the DOTs and we've identified the ones that are most likely to be a good use of our time, and we're kind of targeting those. And we've been quite successful so far.

And one of the things that's going on under the hood is they're also adopting building information modeling and -- as they go digital. And whenever somebody says digital workflows in the cloud and BIM, it's like Autodesk, bingo, so that sort of is good for us, too.

Yes. And if you think about a DOT, it's more than just roads and bridges. There's other infrastructure that they own. They have to think about water, they have to think about buildings. So we're the one that comes in kind of with the whole package and the ability to connect that on a data backbone that will help them manage those assets for their lifetime.

To that point on having different types of projects and different types of work, I think there's this view that with this new administration, we're going to see shifts in priorities. So on a net basis, maybe no change to the infrastructure focus. But how could that shift within the portfolio? Like do you see any areas upticking or downticking? And I guess -- maybe we start that.

It's too early to say at this point. But if I think about the infrastructure portfolio, I still think roads, bridges, highways, airports are going to be important for us going forward. You might see less excitement about high-speed rail in the State of California, for example, but that would be -- could be replaced with new semiconductor factories. There was just an announcement today about TSMC building a big factory in the U.S. And then the other area, too, is also AI. These data centers are coming and they -- we need a lot of them, and those seem to be on a very smooth path to have continued investment.

Okay. And then several years ago, you acquired Innovyze, I think that within your infrastructure opportunity, the view is that you could seize some of the cross-sell opportunities. And then obviously, this big EBA cohort that didn't have Innovyze 3 years ago when they may have renewed. So I guess where does -- may not just Innovyze per se, but where does the cross-sell like opportunity with kind of the year shaping up?

Yes. So the water portfolio that we acquired matches really well with our existing capabilities, with our civil infrastructure products. And so the first thing we had to do with water was take 3,000 SKUs and get them down to a manageable set that could be managed across the Autodesk ecosystem. So that's happened. The second thing we needed to do is move them from perpetual licenses and maintenance to subscription, almost done with that transition. And now we're really ready to scale. The EBAs, the named accounts jumped on pretty early because we're able to support them right out of the gate. And now we're really looking at how we scale globally through the channel and through other Autodesk employees. And we just hired a new Head of Sales for the water business. And the great thing about him is he's the one who got Fusion into the channel at Autodesk. And so he has really great experience in taking something that's new and helping the channel partners figure out how to do business around it.

Okay. And then maybe if we switch gears to the A. I mean, the Architecture business is your bread and butter. It's where you've got the most market share, it's your most mature business. How are your architecture customers thinking about the next couple of years? I know you talked about it having like strong backlogs but I kind of interpreted that as being more of your construction customers, maybe or maybe I'm wrong.

They both -- they all have strong backlogs. They all have more work than they have kind of manpower to do, and they all have margin pressures. And so what they're really looking for us is how do they kind of do more with less because they don't have as many employees. And so that means automation. That means AI. That means, again, investing in a common data environment so that they have a single source of truth for all their projects. And for many of them, that means connecting to downstream. How can they help with preconstruction, how can they help with handover to the general contractor so that they're adding more value further down the process.

Okay. And then when we think about your Architecture business, like are there any like hiring trends that you're seeing? Or I guess what are you seeing in some of these like forward-leading indicators for that segment?

So I don't -- I can't really respond to the hiring trends. Again, I think in general, there are positions and there are -- there's gaps for people. But if I think about the types of projects they work, on, continue to shift, right? There's more -- happily, there's more office conversions finally happening, and we talked about that for several years now, but they're actually really starting to happen. So people are investing there. We talked about AI and all of the data centers that are needed, lots of energy there. And we still have the housing -- global housing crisis. So countries all over the world are still trying to figure out how do we house our people, as they're moving more to cities. And lots of work is happening there too.

And then I did want to ask about Revit. It's your product that I think a lot of people underappreciate, maybe your customers, too. So maybe can you talk about some of the value that you've added to it over the last few years?

Absolutely. A couple of things, I think, that are really important. One is sort of performance stability, capacity, all the things that make the person who comes in every day and fires up Revit like really, really happy. The other thing we do is because we have such a huge Revit community, we have lots of different listing posts with those customers. And so then we take all that information and figure out what are the most important things that have the biggest impact on the current user. So we do hundreds and hundreds of new features for those people. But then we also look at the types of projects they're doing. So we invest more in structural steel or things for concrete as we kind of analyze where are customers growing and where do they need more capability. And then the other cool thing is AI kind of floats all the product boats at Autodesk. It doesn't matter if it's a desktop product or a cloud product. As we're building our AI capabilities, they're permeating across the entire portfolio. So Revit customers can access the Autodesk Assistant, which is going to guide them through learning the product, getting help, very much a low touch, but much more knowledgeable assistant, if you will, in how they use the product. And we're continuing to add capabilities across the portfolio that are based on AI that will just drive that productivity and make them feel like we're delivering value to the current subscription they have today.

And maybe talk about how Forma and Revit sort of...

Yes, sorry. And then we have our industry cloud. I think it was at the next question, I don't know. But -- so -- but we're also future-proofing those customers and their investment in Autodesk with our Forma industry cloud. So as we think about connecting design and make in the future through the cloud, Revit is a huge part of that, and we need the -- we're working on getting -- Revit is connected to Autodesk Docs, which is our common data environment, and we're building workflows between Revit and the Forma industry cloud so that the Revit customers have an on-ramp and we're adding value to them as we go. So they don't have to worry about switching costs or anything like that. They're just coming along to the future with us.

I think maybe I'll just ask one more question on this topic. So I understand that you've got some plumbing to still do with Forma kind of your AI licensing and whatnot. But can you like -- because we get this question a lot, like what would an AI offering look like for Autodesk, like what would it be from like a design perspective? I know you used to be kind of leading-edge for regenerative design. I remember seeing that chair example with all the holes in it. It is very light. I'm sure it's durable. It looks great. But like what could this mean for like architecture building, rendering, give us that kind of...

Okay. So it doesn't mean one thing. So it means -- there's 3 ways we're approaching AI, and there's easy AI and there's a hard AI, but if we think about some of the easy AI, this is everyday productivity. This is anticipating maybe your next move in a product and doing that for you. It's helping you understand where you might not be using certain capabilities that would make your life easier or an upsell, cross-sell, maybe you're doing something and the AI can detect, oh, hey, this is way better in this product over here, maybe you want to check that out. So that's kind of what I would call more of the easy productivity pieces. And then on the far other end of the spectrum, you have kind of the generative, like how do we actually create geometry. And so we are training a large building model and a large manufacturing model. In Fusion, we've already delivered some features that automatically constrain geometry. So if you know something like it's supposed to be like parallel, it'll add that for the user. And in AEC, we're also looking at what kind of workflows we can enable there. I mean you can imagine in the future, understanding from a low level of detail building, maybe helping people do estimation so they know early on how much structural steel they need or how much contract they need. So taking decisions that get made further in the process up to the beginning and then starting to create geometry, create documentation. But we still think a human will be involved. So I think the AI is great as an assistant and a helper, a worker on your shoulder, but we're still going to need the talented, skilled, licensed engineers and architects to kind of make sure that everything is hanging together in the end.

And there's like 30 seconds left. I like to end with a fun question.

Okay. That was best.

Yes. No, it's 25 minutes goes by quick. I don't know if I'm supposed to know this, but I think your husband may or may not have owned an ice cream store.

We did. Gosh, yes.

So favorite ice cream flavor?

He was the one with the fun job. We owned a Cold Stone Creamery. I like Chocolate with Heath Bar and Caramel Sauce. Now I'm really dying for that.

That sounds delicious. Anyways, with that, thank you, Amy. Thank you, Simon, and hope everyone have a great time.

Thank you.

Thank you.