In his version of the typical “it was a very difficult decision for us” statement announcing the terminations, Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost said the company would reduce its workforce by roughly 7% – slightly below 2025’s 9%, but still totaling around 1,000 workers. He added that customer-facing sales teams would be hit the hardest, giving us hope that core software development departments may have weathered this storm unscathed.
As for the reasons behind the firings, they follow a familiar theme of déjà vu, being virtually identical to those outlined a year ago: optimization of Autodesk’s go-to-market model, strengthening the company’s corporate functions, and last – and certainly most annoying of all – increasing investment in AI and cloud initiatives.