As someone who has attended Autodesk University (AU) many times in the past, I know just how valuable the event is. I always walk away with fresh insights and perspectives that inspire me tox rethink how we approach our work.
But this year felt different.
You see, I previously attended AU as a customer and construction professional, looking for new ideas and technologies. This year, after joining Autodesk as a Preconstruction Subject Matter Expert, I experienced the event from the other side for the first time.
That change in perspective gave me a new appreciation for the conversations at AU. As a customer, I thought about what new releases could mean for my own organization; now, I’m thinking about their impact across the industry. Hearing directly from contractors about the challenges they’re working to solve gave me a chance to bring their experiences and priorities back to the teams at Autodesk.
Despite experiencing AU from a different perspective, one message felt very familiar: contractors aren’t looking for more disconnected tools. They’re looking for better-connected workflows.
We heard it during customer meetings and booth conversations. It came up in product discussions, roadmap sessions, executive briefings, and thought leadership sessions. Teams want estimating, bidding, qualification, and project execution to work together with less manual effort and fewer handoffs. They also want greater visibility into how preconstruction decisions affect downstream outcomes. And crucially, they want project data to move with them rather than having to recreate it at every stage.
Construction pros see the value in connecting the different parts of preconstruction. So it’s no wonder there was so much interest in Forma Bid (currently in beta), which was showcased in multiple sessions and customer conversations at AU.
During these sessions and discussions, what stood out to me wasn’t simply the interest in another bidding solution. It was the excitement around a more connected and holistic approach to bid management.
To understand where we're headed with bid management, it helps to look at what we've already built.
For years, BuildingConnected enabled contractors to identify qualified subcontractors, manage bids, and make more informed award decisions. It remains one of the industry's most trusted bidding platforms and continues to play an important role in how teams find and engage with trade partners.
Having used BuildingConnected on the contractor side, I’m particularly interested in connecting those familiar workflows to the rest of preconstruction. I know how much effort goes into pulling together bid information, estimates, and qualification data, and I see an opportunity to give teams more time to evaluate that information instead of chasing it down.
Forma Bid (beta) brings BuildingConnected bid management workflows into Autodesk Forma, where teams can manage bid packages, invite subcontractors, evaluate proposals, and collaborate using shared project data alongside takeoff, estimating, and qualification workflows.
This is a major step in connecting bidding to the rest of preconstruction. After all, many contractors have already moved away from spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and manual bid leveling processes in favor of solutions like BuildingConnected. Now they're looking for ways to get even more value from those digital workflows.
All this to say: Contractors weren't asking for another bidding tool. They wanted better-connected workflows that bring together estimating, bidding, qualification, and project data.
We know these are top of mind for contractors, and that's exactly where much of our innovation effort is focused. We expanded beta access to Forma Bid for BuildingConnected Pro customers and brought connected bid-management workflows from BuildingConnected directly into Autodesk Forma.
The biggest challenge in bidding isn't necessarily getting bids out the door. BuildingConnected already makes this process super easy and fast.
It's what happens next.
Once bids begin to arrive, teams must:
Those decisions are often made while information is scattered across multiple systems.
Estimating data lives in one place. Qualification information lives somewhere else. Project documents exist in yet another system.
The result is time spent gathering information before the team can even begin making decisions. When you’re trying to evaluate bids, tracking down information you know already exists somewhere gets frustrating pretty quickly. Teams spend time gathering information before they can begin making decisions.
Connected bid management addresses that challenge by bringing those workflows closer together. Within Forma Bid (beta), project teams can manage multiple RFPs, invite subcontractors, evaluate bids, access qualification information, and collaborate around shared project data from a common environment.
One of the most exciting developments we shared at Autodesk University was the ability to connect estimate line items directly to bid packages.
Historically, estimating and bidding have operated as related but separate activities. Estimators develop expected costs while bid teams collect subcontractor pricing. Comparing the two often requires manual effort and additional analysis.
With connected workflows between Forma Estimate and Forma Bid, teams can map estimate information directly to bid packages and compare incoming subcontractor pricing against internal cost expectations during bid review.
This creates greater visibility into:
A bid below the estimate can look like good news, but I want to understand what’s behind that number before celebrating the savings. Connecting estimating and bidding gives teams a chance to spot scope gaps, question assumptions, and resolve differences before committing to an award.
Pricing is only one part of the decision.
Construction teams also need confidence that prospective partners are qualified to perform the work.
That's why Forma Bid brings the trusted network, qualification, and risk insights contractors already rely on from BuildingConnected and TradeTapp directly into the bidding workflow.
Teams can access the enhanced Builders Network Card experience in Forma Bid, giving them visibility into the contact information, company details, and qualification data they need to evaluate trade partners.
We've also expanded access to TradeTapp qualification information, including key details such as insurance, bonding, and safety data. This makes it easier for teams to assess subcontractors with more context during the bidding process.
Additionally, Forma Bid surfaces ongoing risk insights from the TradeTapp risk team, including flags and alerts that highlight potential concerns during evaluation. Instead of navigating separate tools to gather this information, teams can review bid data, qualification information, and risk insights together as they make award decisions.
When estimating, bidding, qualification, and project data come together, preconstruction teams gain a more complete understanding of both the opportunity and the risk behind every award decision.
AI was another major topic of conversation at AU. In his opening keynote, Andrew Anagnost, President and CEO of Autodesk, covered multiple agents across Forma, including the Bid Proposal Agent (beta).
I want to dive a bit deeper into that, since it delivers tremendous value to preconstruction teams.
Even in organizations with established bidding processes, subcontractor proposals frequently arrive as PDF attachments with different formats, structures, and levels of detail.
Estimators and bid managers spend a lot of time reviewing proposals, extracting pricing information, documenting inclusions and exclusions, and organizing that data in a format that's easier to compare.
With that in mind, we introduced the Bid Proposal Agent (beta) for Forma Bid. Using Autodesk AI, the Bid Proposal Agent can read subcontractor proposal PDFs and transform them into structured bid data within Forma Bid. The agent extracts cost breakdowns, inclusions, and exclusions and presents the results alongside the original proposal for review.
What I find particularly compelling is that the experience is designed around transparency and validation. Rather than treating AI as a black box, every extracted value remains traceable to the source document. It’s easy for estimators to review and verify the information before accepting it into their workflow.
As you can see, human expertise remains at the center. The goal here isn’t to replace estimators. Rather, these tools save time and headaches from having to manually transfer information from proposals into spreadsheets. Thanks to these tools, teams can devote more attention to evaluating scope, understanding risk, and making informed award decisions.
Connected workflows shouldn't stop once a subcontractor is selected.
One theme we keep hearing from customers is that some of the most painful handoffs occur between preconstruction and project execution.
That's why Autodesk is also connecting bid award workflows with Cost Management in Forma Build.
With Forma Bid, awarded bids can be used to create contracts in Cost Management, helping teams move awarded bids into execution with greater continuity and less manual effort.
It's another step toward a future where project information can flow more seamlessly from planning through execution.
Attending AU for the first time as an Autodesk employee gave me a new perspective, but it also reinforced many of the same challenges I experienced as a customer.
Preconstruction teams do not need technology for technology’s sake. They need workflows that reduce manual effort, provide better context for decisions, and help information move more seamlessly throughout all stages of the project.
Forma Bid remains in beta, and we’re still early in this journey. But the direction is clear. The future of preconstruction isn’t just about digitizing individual tasks. It’s about connecting the data, decisions, and teams that influence project outcomes.
Having now experienced these challenges from both sides, I’m excited to help bring the contractor’s perspective into the work Autodesk is doing across preconstruction. We’ll continue to bring proven BuildingConnected capabilities into Autodesk Forma and connect them with key project workflows.
As we build on this momentum and continue listening to our customers, we are committed to delivering experiences grounded in how preconstruction teams actually work.
At AU, I joined Cory Kintz, Principal Product Manager at Autodesk, for a session exploring the challenges contractors face, the vision behind connected bid management, and what is possible today within the Forma Bid beta experience. I invite you to watch our session to learn more.
