Latest Autodesk industry survey reveals that industry leaders are confronting daunting headwinds, from increased geopolitical uncertainty and inflation to talent gaps and AI.
Autodesk’s latest State of Design & Make report has highlighted that infrastructure sector organisations are grappling with a number of key challenges, including increased geopolitical uncertainty and inflation to talent gaps and challenges implementing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. However, for the third year, digital transformation has been proven to help organisations identify opportunity amid disruption, providing benefits across the board.
The 2025 State of Design & Make report is the latest global, annual, study for leaders who design and make places, objects and experiences. The report identifies the most pressing issues shaping today’s businesses and helps leaders make informed, strategic decisions about how to prioritise and invest for the future.
For the 2025 report, Autodesk surveyed and interviewed 5,594 industry leaders, futurists, and experts in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations, product design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment industries from countries around the globe. The latest report contains key findings from this research, including details at the sector and regional level and leaders were clear on the challenges they are facing.
Key challenges faced by leaders
Cost control remains top of mind for organisations amid continued inflation and increasing supply-chain fragility. Implementation of AI and emerging technologies is the second most-cited challenge, one that is compounded by both cost and labour concerns. Talent remains a perennial problem, with nearly two-thirds of organisations experiencing a skills gap and the majority of companies saying lack of skilled talent is hindering growth.
Optimism about AI is down and concern about its destabilising effects is up among leaders in Design and Make as organisations struggle with implementation and finding practical use cases for the new technology. And, finally, global uncertainty is depleting organisational confidence and increasing feelings of unpreparedness.
Despite this uncertainty, business leaders in Design and Make are still feeling bullish in some areas as they identify opportunity amid disruption. Although overall investments are down year-over-year, more than two-thirds of leaders say they will increase overall future investments.
Sustainability is experiencing a surge of optimism, with nearly all leaders saying their organisations are taking steps to be more sustainable. Sustainability also continues to be a key differentiator in talent acquisition. AI has solidified its place this year as the top sustainability enabler for Design and Make organisations, with applications from natural disaster mitigation to project lifecycle management.
One standout finding this year is that most leaders surveyed say digital transformation efforts led to improvements at their organisations. The majority of organisations benefiting from digital transformation are seeing more than 50% improvements in categories such as customer satisfaction, innovation, and productivity. Digitally mature companies tend to invest more heavily in technology and those investments are now paying outsize dividends during the current period of caution.
The digital maturity difference
In the report, “digitally mature” companies are defined as those that are approaching or have achieved the goal of their digital transformation journey. “Less digitally mature” companies are defined as those that are in the early stages or right in the middle of their digital transformation journey.
Digitally mature organisations are 41% more likely to diversify their supply chains and leaders at these organisations feel more prepared to handle unforeseen changes compared to less digitally mature companies, giving them an advantage when it comes to resilience. These organisations are also more likely to leverage internal data to gain a competitive edge, more quickly develop products and services and complete projects faster than other companies.
Digital maturity also eases talent concerns, with a 22-point improvement in talent acquisition and retention from their technological advancement over less digitally mature organisations. Organisations that are digitally mature are more likely to enter new markets and increase investments into acquisitions, allowing them to expand while others are contracting.
There’s no question that leaders in Design and Make industries are confronting a challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. However, given the findings of the 2025 State of Design & Make survey, a resilience agenda that is centred on digital transformation can provide strong protection against uncertainty.
Click here to download Autodesk’s 2025 State of Design & Make report.
