India to play a critical role in innovation, technology development worldwide: Autodesk's Khoobchandani

New Delhi: India will play a crucial role in innovation, technology, and software development for Autodesk, the US design and engineering company globally, and the country leads in digital adoption across the Asia Pacific region, a top executive said.

"India will play a critical role in both innovation and the development of technologies and software for us globally. We have a lot of engineering talent building software in India that is being used by the world," Haresh Khoobchandani, Vice President, APAC & Japan at Autodesk told ET.

Further, the executive said, "I see India's ability to scale, its accessibility, and its innovation—I think that's what separates India from the rest of the world.""


A recent study commissioned by Autodesk pointed out that India leads the way in AI digital adoption with nearly 63% of respondents in India revealing they are already using or would use agentic AI.

The company has the second-highest employee base in India after the US.

"We have a big presence, and we have grown that presence only in the last five years. The scale has just grown phenomenally."

Khoobchandani also said that in the semiconductor, mobility, and industrial manufacturing domains, India remains at a "really advantageous point" backed by right set of incentives.

San Francisco-based Autodesk offers artificial intelligence (AI)-centric 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software for architects, builders and engineers across sectors.

Recently, the company integrated agentic AI across its industry clouds, based on the unified Autodesk Assistant platform that uses connected data to offer advanced project intelligence.

"We are saying AI is part of the software to help you unlock capacity, to help you scale, to help you make better decisions, to help you lower costs, give you more time and bandwidth to go and do the things that matter the most."

Last year, billionaire Gautam Adani-headed Indian behemoth Adani Group partnered with Autodesk to enhance efficiencies, visibility and predictability across its infrastructure portfolio, fostering innovation, AI-led automation and sustainability-led project delivery.

"Now, when we work with large conglomerates like Adani, it's not just in airports, transportation, road infrastructure, or energy, we are going to build up skillsets to support India's expansion in these areas and bring our global practices into India in the next two years."

In November 2025, the Directorate General of Training (DGT) under India's Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Autodesk to advance digital design and manufacturing skills across vocational institutions.