Partnering With AI: How Autodesk Assistant Is Shaping the Future of Design and Make [Updated 2026]

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At AU 2025, we shared our future vision for how artificial intelligence will transform the way people design and make. We’re now entering an agentic era of AI—where intelligent systems can make decisions, act autonomously, and collaborate with people to accelerate innovation. 

With fifteen years of AI research and product development under its belt, Autodesk is prepared to help our customers meet this moment. Autodesk AI, for example, is already built natively into the Autodesk Platform. MCP servers integrated into Autodesk Assistant will allow our customers to take advantage of its agentic AI enhancements to accomplish design and manufacturing workflows faster while still maintaining trust that their data and IP are secure and adhere to enterprise governance requirements. 

Updated July 2026: What’s new in Autodesk Assistant

Autodesk Assistant continues to evolve as Autodesk expands AI-powered workflows across Design and Make. Since this article was originally published, several new capabilities and platform investments have increased what Autodesk Assistant can help users accomplish.

What’s new in 2026:

• Autodesk Assistant is increasingly connected to Autodesk workflows through Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling more context-aware interactions across products and services.
• Expanded manufacturing guidance helps users discover CAM workflows, learn manufacturing strategies, and accelerate programming tasks directly within Fusion.
• Improved contextual assistance helps users find information, understand product capabilities, and complete common workflows using natural-language prompts.
• Ongoing investments in MCP, agent-based experiences, and connected Autodesk data are laying the foundation for more automated Design and Make workflows across Autodesk products.

What is Autodesk Assistant?

Autodesk Assistant represents the next major step in Autodesk’s AI evolution, a conversational, generative AI experience designed to work naturally within the tools you use every day. Its goal is to remove friction, simplify common tasks, and help you make faster, more informed decisions. Think of it as an intuitive entry point into AI capabilities that enhance and accelerate your design process. 

This article showcases a selection of exploratory features and concepts that are currently in development. It is not a product specification, and release timing is still subject to change. As such, the examples here should not be used to guide purchasing decisions. Instead, consider this a snapshot of the exciting capabilities previewed at AU2025 and a look at where we’re heading. 

With that in mind, here are a few of the ways Autodesk Assistant is being designed to make everyday workflows more efficient for product designers and engineers.

How Autodesk Assistant Works with Fusion MCP

Autodesk Assistant and Fusion MCP serve complementary roles in Autodesk’s AI ecosystem.

Autodesk Assistant is the conversational experience users interact with directly. Fusion MCP (Model Context Protocol) provides the structured connection between AI systems and Fusion data, commands, workflows, and design context. Together, they help bridge the gap between asking for an outcome and executing work within engineering and manufacturing environments.

What does Fusion MCP enable?

Fusion MCP helps AI systems understand engineering intent by providing a secure way to access relevant design data, manufacturing information, project context, and workflow actions. Rather than relying only on general AI knowledge, connected AI experiences can reference actual design and manufacturing information when helping users make decisions.

Example workflow: From question to action

A product designer might ask Autodesk Assistant:

“Review this design and recommend the next manufacturing steps.”

Autodesk Assistant can help interpret the request, while Fusion MCP provides access to the design context needed to understand geometry, manufacturing requirements, and project information. The result is a more connected workflow where users can move from questions and guidance toward execution within Fusion.

As Autodesk continues investing in agent-based workflows, Autodesk Assistant and MCP will play increasingly important roles in helping teams move faster from design intent to manufacturing outcomes. Check out this step-by-step getting started guide.

How does Autodesk Assistant help new Fusion ysers get started faster?

Onboarding new users

Set up projects for collaboration with Autodesk Assistant! It makes working in Fusion faster and easier by using conversational language to create projects, organize folders, and invite people or groups—all in one step. The Assistant confirms changes before applying them and serves as an optional alternative to traditional user and group management tools. Whether you’re familiar with Fusion’s permissions or just getting started, it guides you every step of the way. 

Neural CAD

Autodesk Assistant will intake a text prompt like “create a contemporary air fryer” into native, editable 3D geometry within the Fusion canvas. This moves beyond static mesh generation into truly modifiable design data. Removing the blank-screen barrier helps teams explore early-stage concepts faster, spark creativity, and jumpstart iterations with usable geometry ready for further refinement.

Text to command

Text to Command through Autodesk Fusion will bring natural-language interaction directly into everyday CAD modeling. Instead of hunting for tools or repeating common operations, users will be able to describe what they want to do—“split this body with my construction plane,” “extrude this face by 1 inch,” or “add a 0.5 mm chamfer to all edges”—and Assistant will carry out the corresponding Fusion commands. It will also take on more tedious tasks, such as hiding the smallest bodies in an assembly, highlighting faces above a certain surface area, or applying the same fillet to matching edges.

Users will also be able to save multi-step sequences as reusable prompts and apply them across future designs. Something along the lines of “fillet all edges, extrude the largest face by 3mm, then split the body in half along the XY Plane. By offloading repetitive actions and routine geometry edits to natural language, Assistant will help users stay in the flow and focus more on design intent than on navigating tools. 

Microsoft AI media generation

Through Autodesk’s collaboration with Microsoft, Autodesk Assistant will open an entirely new way for teams to communicate and present their ideas. You’ll be able to render designs, gather project data, and generate Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with simple natural-language prompts. When these capabilities arrive, they’ll cut down the time spent formatting slides or assembling visuals—letting teams focus on insight and storytelling while Assistant handles the production work.

How does Autodesk Assistant help CAM programmers create manufacturing toolpaths?

In manufacturing, Autodesk Assistant is designed to act as a conversational guide inside Fusion—helping CAM programmers and machinists get more out of the tools they already use. At launch, it will focus on answering Fusion-specific questions about manufacturing workflows and performing common tasks on request (such as “make me a milling setup”) so users can move from model to NC programming with fewer clicks and less hunting through menus. 

Autodesk Assistant helps manufacturing teams discover appropriate manufacturing workflows, understand CAM features, and identify recommended approaches before programming begins. For organizations onboarding new CAM users, Assistant can help shorten the learning curve while improving consistency across manufacturing processes

Over time, Autodesk Assistant is expected to deepen its role in Fusion’s manufacturing experience, making it easier to discover capabilities, apply best-practice templates, and keep programming steps aligned with evolving design intent. The vision is a more connected, efficient workflow where AI reduces friction in everyday tasks, so experts can focus on decisions that drive quality, precision, and throughput.

What can Autodesk Assistant do in Vault and engineering data management?

Inside Vault, Autodesk Assistant will extend its conversational intelligence to transform how teams access and manage their data. You’ll be able to ask for things like “show me the latest released valve assembly” or “update drawings for revision C,” and Assistant will translate those prompts into accurate searches and automated actions. When these capabilities arrive, they’ll make advanced workflows far more accessible, allowing even new Vault users to operate like power users and helping organizations unlock more value from their Vault investment.

How does Autodesk Assistant Connect Fusion, Vault, and Fusion Manage?

Many engineering workflows extend beyond a single application. A design may begin in Fusion, move through document control in Vault, and eventually enter change-management processes in Fusion Manage.

Autodesk Assistant helps reduce friction across these workflows by simplifying how users access information, locate project data, and initiate downstream processes. Rather than switching between multiple systems and commands, users can interact through natural language while maintaining the traceability and governance expected in engineering organizations.

Looking ahead: Autodesk Assistant as an AI design and manufacturing partner

Autodesk Assistant is a key part of a broader vision for Autodesk AI—a connected ecosystem that spans products like Revit, AutoCAD, Maya, Fusion, and Vault. Together, these AI-powered capabilities are designed to help people and machines work side by side, amplifying creativity, accelerating decisions, and helping improve efficiency in workflows across every stage of design and make. 

This is not about replacing expertise—it’s about expanding it. Autodesk Assistant represents a future where AI acts as a true creative and technical partner, helping customers turn ideas into outcomes faster, smarter, and with more confidence than ever before. 

This article includes forward-looking statements about our products and strategies. These statements reflect our views based on information currently available and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Any references to planned or future product development are not guarantees of future availability and should not be relied upon for purchasing decisions. They represent our current plans and may change. 

Frequently asked questions about Autodesk Assistant?