Monday, November 27, 2023

Making AI Catalyst for an Upgrade of Our Design and Manufacturing Space

Over the years, many different traits have tried to define human beings in their own unique manner, and yet none have done a better job than our trait of improving at a consistent pace. This unwavering commitment towards growth, under all possible circumstances, has brought the world some huge milestones, with technology emerging as quite a major member of the group. The reason why we hold technology in such a high regard is, by and large, predicated upon its skill-set, which guided us towards a reality that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface for one hot second, it will become abundantly clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired from the way we applied those skills across a real world environment. The latter component, in fact, did a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and as a result, initiated a full-blown tech revolution. Of course, the next thing this revolution did was to scale up the human experience through some outright unique avenues, but even after achieving a feat so notable, technology will somehow continue to bring forth the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times, and assuming one new AI development ends up with the desired impact, it will only put that trend on a higher pedestal moving forward.

Autodesk has officially announced the launch of Autodesk AI, which is designed to unlock creativity, solve problems, and eliminate non-productive work across the industries that design and make the world around us. Available across the wider Autodesk portfolio, the stated solution comes well-equipped with an ability to deliver at your disposal intelligent assistance and generative capabilities that allow customers to imagine and explore freely, while simultaneously producing precise, accurate, and innovative results. Talk about how this will happen on a more granular level, the answer is rooted in a collection of dedicated sub-solutions present within the product. For instance, when we bring up architecture, engineering, and construction industry, Autodesk AI will begin its value proposition from Autodesk Forma. This one can effectively provide rapid wind, noise, and operational energy analysis so to help you conduct smart early-stage planning and take design decisions that improve outcomes rather meaningfully. Next up, we have the prospect of InfoGraphic, a Machine Learning Deluge Tool bearing the responsibility to offer feedback on the best placement for retention ponds and swales. Such functionality should help users in preventing or reducing the impact of water disasters. Moving on, then there is AutoCAD, which leverages artificial intelligence to help drafters iterate faster through handwritten notes and digital markups. The idea around AutoCAD is to determine the intent of the user to recommend context-aware actions for easily incorporating changes. The last bit of prominent details across this space comes from Construction IQ, a tool meant to again use AI to predict, prevent, and manage construction risks that might impact quality, safety, cost, or schedule.

The discipline we will now get into is of product design and manufacturing, where Autodesk will use its Blank AI acquisition to enable conceptual design exploration for the automotive industry. By doing so, it will birth accelerated outcomes, alongside 3D models that can be rapidly created, explored, and edited in real time using semantic controls and natural language, and guess what, you won’t need any advanced technical skills whatsoever around here. Another way through which Autodesk AI will enhance design and manufacturing space is through Autodesk Fusion, which allows customers to automatically generate product designs that are optimized for manufacturing method, performance, cost, and more. Furthermore, Fusion workflows are being specifically conceived to ensure automated creation of templatized Computer-Aided Manufacturing toolpaths that can be adjusted by the user as needed. Complimenting the same are automated drawings that will provide interactive experiences in sheet creation, view placement, and annotation workflows.

“As the trusted technology partner for Design and Make industries, Autodesk sees AI as a way for our customers to tackle the challenges they face and turn them into opportunities,” said Andrew Anagnost, President and Chief Executive Officer at Autodesk. “AI is the future of design and make, and Autodesk is pioneering this transition. We sit at the junction of many of the most creative and impactful industries in the world. We’ll continue to invest in AI because of its transformational potential to drive better outcomes for our customers’ businesses and the world.”

Rounding up the highlights is what Autodesk AI has on the offer for media and entertainment industry. For starters, the product banks upon generative scheduling capabilities in Autodesk Flow to automate scheduling for media and entertainment productions, doing so on an actionable note by managing the constantly shifting variables between teams and budgets. Notably, this generative scheduling approach produces results in minutes for a process which has traditionally taken days at a time. Given the dramatic difference, teams can predict, plan, and right-size resources to ensure creative bandwidth wherever needed. Turning our attention to Autodesk Flame, this one knows a thing or two about automating manual tasks such as keying, sky replacement, beauty work, and camera tracking for artists. These people can also expect to interact with the company’s 3D animation software called Maya and access its scene data using natural language text prompts. To make the offering all the more significant, Autodesk has also collaborated with Wonder Dynamics, a collaboration where AI will power a Maya plug-in to automatically animate, light, and compose computer-generated characters for live-action scenes.

The entire development provides an interesting follow-up to one recent State of Design and Make special report on AI, which claimed that out of all the companies surveyed, 77% revealed that they are planning to increase or strongly increase investment in AI over the course of next three years. As for all the leaders who were surveyed, 66% agree that in two to three years AI will be essential. But what makes Autodesk an ideal candidate to make the most of this raging trend? Well, apart from all the AI-driven solutions, the company’s credentials are also markedly rooted in the fact that it has, till date, published more than 60 peer-reviewed research papers advancing the state of the art in AI and generative AI.

“With a commitment to security and ethical AI practices, we’re focused on delivering responsible AI solutions that address our customers’ needs,” said Raji Arasu, Chief Technology Officer at Autodesk. “Autodesk AI will continue to surface across the Autodesk platform–both in our existing products and our industry clouds–to enable better ways of designing and making.”

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