Autodesk's chief executive tells architecture firms to hire five or seven people where they would have hired ten

Autodesk chief executive Andrew Anagnost told architects and engineers to hire five or seven people where they would hire ten and put the difference into technology. He said it in his keynote at Autodesk University in Las Vegas on 15 September 2026, as the software maker launched a suite of AI tools including an autonomous agent, Autodesk Assistant, due in 2027. "If you're hiring 10 people now, maybe you should hire five or seven and create a budget for technology," Anagnost said, according to Architectural Record, which reported the keynote on 7 October. He also argued that AI will not replace architects but free them for higher-value decisions, and that "we're all going to become managers of agents." The magazine's editor points to the conflict between those two messages. Anagnost runs a company that sells these AI tools, so he has a stake in firms buying them, and he was describing advice to customers, not job cuts at Autodesk. The quote comes from the magazine's account of the keynote, not a transcript. Employers that do credit AI for their own cuts are listed in the AI layoffs tracker on this site.