Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) executives said the company’s recently announced acquisition of MaintainX is intended to extend its software strategy from design and construction into the operations phase of an asset’s life cycle, positioning the company to address a larger market tied to maintenance and facility operations.
Speaking at a Baird fireside chat, Simon Mays-Smith, Autodesk’s vice president of investor relations, said the company’s broader goal is to connect workflows “end-to-end in the cloud” with artificial intelligence layered on top. He said Autodesk has spent nearly a decade building cloud-connected data environments across architecture, engineering and construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment.
“In simple terms, what we’re trying to do is to create a single model from right at the beginning of the process in conceptual design through to the end,” Mays-Smith said.
MaintainX Seen as Cornerstone of Operations Strategy
Mays-Smith described MaintainX as a “cornerstone acquisition” in the operations market because it addresses computerized maintenance management systems, or CMMS, which he said represent the largest portion of an estimated $40 billion operations total addressable market.
He said MaintainX focuses on maintenance workflows that apply across factories, commercial buildings and infrastructure. The company’s software helps teams take action when something goes wrong with an asset, complementing Autodesk’s existing digital twin capabilities, which can monitor buildings through sensors and, over time, use AI to predict potential faults.
Mays-Smith said the operations opportunity differs from Autodesk’s design and construction businesses because it can last for decades after an asset is built. He noted that roughly 80% of a building’s cost comes after construction, while Autodesk has historically addressed the 20% tied to design and construction.
He also said MaintainX is cloud-native and mobile-first, contrasting it with traditional incumbents that are often on-premise and dependent on custom integrations. Access to MaintainX’s data, he said, could support AI use cases in operations and eventually influence earlier design decisions.
“When you’re doing conceptual design, right at the beginning of the process, if you can have something saying, ‘Don’t install that HVAC system, because two years after construction, you’re going to have a problem,’ that is immensely valuable information,” Mays-Smith said.
Executives Point to Construction Playbook
Mays-Smith compared the MaintainX acquisition to Autodesk’s construction strategy, saying the company spent about $1.8 billion to build a construction business that has generated about $600 million in revenue over the last 12 months and is growing more than 20%.
He declined to provide a revenue or annual recurring revenue forecast for MaintainX but said Autodesk can help the business expand beyond its current focus on factories. He highlighted three potential areas of support: moving into architecture, engineering and construction; expanding into enterprise accounts with multiple assets; and growing internationally through Autodesk’s sales teams, e-store and channel partners.
Sidharth Haksar, Autodesk’s vice president and head of construction strategy and partnerships, said the MaintainX deal follows more than four years of Autodesk studying the operations market. He said the move is a “natural progression” as Autodesk serves owners’ capital projects teams and then their facilities teams.
Haksar also noted Autodesk previously invested in Eptura, a company owned by Thoma Bravo, which he said helped Autodesk learn the operations space and “de-risk” its thinking before the MaintainX acquisition.
Construction Demand Supported by Digitization
On the construction market, Haksar said several end markets are seeing growth, including data centers, power grid upgrades, healthcare and stadiums. He said the broader industry remains under-digitized, with many companies still relying on Excel, paper or lower-grade enterprise resource planning systems to manage projects.
Haksar said that trend is not limited to the United States. He pointed to India, which he described as the third-largest construction market globally, where infrastructure growth is fueling demand but construction work is still often managed with paper and spreadsheets.
“People have to invest in tech to become more efficient,” Haksar said, citing labor shortages, compressed schedules and more complex projects as reasons companies are adopting construction software.
Haksar said Autodesk’s advantage in construction comes from combining design and construction tools on one platform. He said Autodesk generates more than $1 billion from the construction industry when including both cloud construction tools and desktop modeling products. He also cited pricing flexibility and Autodesk’s geographic footprint through channel partners as differentiators.
AI Adoption Still Early in Construction
Asked where construction professionals are on a 10-point scale of AI-driven change, Haksar said the industry is still early, placing it between “one and two.” He said AI can nevertheless deliver immediate benefits in simple field workflows.
As an example, Haksar described a superintendent documenting a cracked pipe on a job site. Today, he said, the worker may take a photo and manually write a description. Autodesk’s AI can identify the issue from the photo and auto-populate the description, reducing a task that might take two minutes to about 15 to 20 seconds.
Haksar said AI is also gaining attention in pre-construction because mistakes in bids, scopes of work or specifications can lead to margin pressure and rework once projects move to the field. He characterized pre-construction AI as a risk mitigation tool, while field AI could drive productivity gains.
Mays-Smith said many companies lack the data, context and 3D engineering capabilities needed for more advanced AI. He said Autodesk’s cloud-based data access, 3D inference capabilities and platform services are central to its AI strategy.
Sales Changes and Consumption Models
Mays-Smith said Autodesk’s sales reorganization is designed to create more direct integration with customers, supported by self-service, auto-renewal and co-terming. He said the company also moved away from customized Salesforce systems and onto the base Salesforce platform, allowing it to adopt newer AI-enabled sales productivity tools.
On monetization, Mays-Smith said subscriptions will remain in place for a long time, with core functionality and capacity included. Customers that need additional capacity for high-compute workloads such as AI may buy more capacity. He said 17% of Autodesk’s business is already consumption-based, which he described as financially similar to subscription when customers buy capacity ahead of time and consume it on a “use it or lose it” basis.
“Consumption doesn’t have to be volatile,” Mays-Smith said. “You can give the customer the benefit of flexibility and certainty, while also enabling us to have predictable and ratable revenue streams.”
About Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK)
Autodesk, Inc (NASDAQ: ADSK) is a software company that develops design and creation tools for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), manufacturing, and media and entertainment industries. Headquartered in San Rafael, California, the company was founded in 1982 and is best known for pioneering CAD (computer-aided design) software. Autodesk sells products and services to a global customer base, including architects, engineers, contractors, product designers, and content creators.
The company’s product portfolio includes industry-standard design and modeling applications such as AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, Fusion 360, Maya and 3ds Max, as well as cloud-based collaboration and project management platforms like BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud.
