India's policymakers keen to adopt new technologies: Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost

Las Vegas: Indian ministers are accessible and very receptive to embracing new technologies, and the country offers quality talent, a top executive at a US multinational said.

"I have had more meetings with ministers in India than I have in Europe or the US because they're all very interested in knowing how we can work together to get new technologies more into the process," Autodesk President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Anagnost told ET.

Further, Anagnost said that, on the policy side, the American multinational is working with the Indian government, which has a Make in India focus.


"We are also trying to encourage them to do these things more efficiently: let's start mandating models, start getting away from drawings where we can, and let's start asking tough questions about the processes, and they are open to these conversations."

Autodesk is advancing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities across its portfolio to help companies move more efficiently from design to manufacturing.

The AI-led next-generation experience extends beyond any single product, the San Francisco-based company said at Autodesk University 2026.

The top executive also said that India's talent pool is unparalleled and that the company is focusing on hiring quality talent.

"It's all about quality, depth of talent, and when we look at India right now, we see a lot of quality and we see a lot of depth, and we are actively engaging with the team that we just hired," he added.

The design-and-make company has a research and development (R&D) unit in Bengaluru and has its second-largest workforce in India, outside the US.

Autodesk’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India has been central to building new capabilities across its portfolio and contributing to architecture, engineering and construction-related workflows.

Last year, the American multinational entered into a strategic partnership with the Adani Group to accelerate digital transformation across its global infrastructure projects.

Recently, Autodesk invested $200 million and partnered with World Labs to build spatial intelligence through multimodal models that perceive, generate and interact with virtual and physical worlds.

(The author is attending Autodesk University 2026 in Las Vegas at Autodesk's invitation.)