AAutodesk Assistant

Autodesk Assistant is the AI agent built into Autodesk Forma, and for contractors already keeping RFIs, submittals, issues and meeting minutes there, it comes included with the subscription. Autodesk says thousands of users adopted it after its 2025 introduction, and it is now out of beta for construction workflows.

It suits general contractors, owners and design firms whose project records already live in Forma, formerly Autodesk Construction Cloud. Teams on Procore or another platform may find an agent built for that system a better fit, and buyers should expect bundle pricing to come through Autodesk sales. We rate it 7.8/10 on our scale. We have not used Autodesk Assistant; this review is based on Autodesk’s product blog posts, bundle page and press release.

Autodesk Assistant by the Numbers

Autodesk shares few usage numbers for the Assistant itself, so most of these facts describe availability and scope.

Two points matter for a buyer. The Assistant is general availability software, not a beta, and it ships inside a bundle many contractors already pay for, so trying it costs time rather than a new contract. The roadmap points to a broader agent platform, where customer and partner agents connect to Autodesk’s own.

Autodesk also publishes AI Transparency Cards that describe each feature’s data sources, safeguards and known limits, which is more disclosure than many construction AI tools offer.

Searching, Flagging and Drafting Across Forma Projects

Autodesk positions the Assistant as action-oriented rather than a help chatbot. It works on project data a user can already access and coordinates with other Autodesk agents to answer.

The Data It Reads

The Assistant searches specifications, RFIs, issues, submittals, meetings, change orders and schedules. In January 2026 Autodesk added meeting minutes as a source for the Project Data Agent, so decisions recorded in meetings become searchable. Autodesk’s construction data model and ontology classify records, which lets a question about carpentry surface related items even when the word carpentry never appears.

Analyze, Augment and Automate

• Analyze: Surface risks, track progress and highlight priorities from live project data.
• Augment: Search documents in natural language and summarize meetings.
• Automate: Draft emails, generate summaries and build reports and dashboards.

Users can save effective prompts to a prompt library so a project team asks the same weekly questions the same way.

Help Inside the Workflow

A Help Content agent answers questions about Autodesk’s construction products without sending users to the help site. Elsewhere in Forma, AI fills fields such as location when drafting an RFI from a prompt, and AutoSpecs generates submittal logs from specifications.

A Project Engineer’s Monday Morning

A project engineer on a mid-rise job asks the Assistant which open RFIs affect the curtain wall and whether any related submittals are overdue. It searches RFIs, submittals and last week’s meeting minutes, lists the items with links and flags one submittal that is holding up a decision. The engineer asks for a draft email to the glazing subcontractor and a one-page summary for the owner meeting. Both arrive as drafts. The engineer edits the tone, checks the dates against the schedule and sends them.

Harrison Pierce, a QA/QC and commissioning manager at Linbeck Group, told Autodesk that getting a first draft from the Assistant helps when it is hard to know where to start.

Other AI in the Forma Bundle

The Assistant sits beside several other AI features in the same bundle. Forma Build drafts RFIs with AI, AutoSpecs generates submittal logs automatically and reviews specifications, Pype handles submittal logs and closeout documentation, and machine-learning predictive insights flag risk. Forma Construction Connect is a no-code platform for linking Forma with other business applications, which is how many contractors move data to and from their accounting or ERP systems. For a buyer, the Assistant is the layer that lets people ask questions across all of these without opening each tool.

Lauren L. Collier, director of AI and innovation at SSOE Group, told Autodesk she sees the Assistant becoming a central tool for coordination, quality assurance and engineering work.

What Comes Next

At Autodesk University 2026, Autodesk previewed Personal Pulse, which surfaces prioritized issues across projects, and Assistant Spaces, where teams and their agents investigate a problem and trace downstream effects. Its example: a structural change traced to fabrication, schedule, cost, construction sequencing and operations. Assistant Builder will let customers connect their own agents, tools and partner services, and third-party agents from the Design and Make Marketplace are planned. An AI Orchestrator picks models for each task based on accuracy, speed, security and cost.

Autodesk AI Orchestrator is a quiet but useful piece for buyers. Rather than tying the Assistant to one model, Autodesk routes each task to the model it judges best on accuracy, speed, security and cost, which means the Assistant is not tied to a single AI model and can use a faster model for simple searches and a stronger one for harder analysis.

Where People Stay in Charge

Autodesk designs the Assistant to support professional judgment, with controls and human oversight. CEO Andrew Anagnost put it plainly at AU 2026: in industries where work has real-world consequences, probably right is wrong. Drafts, risk flags and summaries are inputs to decisions that engineers and managers still make.

Included in Forma Bundles, Priced Through Sales

Autodesk does not sell the Assistant on its own today.

Weighing an Included Agent

Because the Assistant comes with the subscription, its cost question is different from a standalone agent’s. The useful measure is time saved per user.

• A project engineer saving 30 minutes a day: Over 5 days that is 2.5 hours a week, or about 125 hours across a 50-week year.
• A 10-person project team at the same rate: That becomes about 1,250 hours a year spent on work other than searching logs and drafting status emails.
• A team new to Forma: The real cost is the Forma subscription and the work of moving records into it, which only pays off if the team adopts the platform as a whole.

Ask Autodesk which licenses include the Assistant for each user type, whether any usage limits apply, and how the planned 2027 standalone terms might change what you pay.

Autodesk Assistant Compared With Procore Agents, Trimble AI Agents, Trunk Tools and PlanRadar AI Agents

Construction AI agents mostly live inside the platform that holds the project records.

The choice usually follows the platform. Forma users get the Assistant without a new vendor, and Procore or Trimble users get similar value from their own platform’s agents. Trunk Tools suits teams whose documents are spread across several systems, and PlanRadar suits teams focused on site documentation with a published price. More options are in our construction AI agents and project management AI agents guides.

General Contractors and Owners Already on Forma

• Project engineers and managers on Forma: Plain-language search across RFIs, submittals, issues and meetings saves digging through logs.
• Owners’ representatives: Summaries and dashboards help report status across a portfolio.
• Design and construction firms using several Autodesk products: The Assistant works across Forma, Fusion and Flow, and Assistant Spaces aim to trace design changes into construction.
• Teams with in-house AI tools: Assistant Builder will let them connect their own agents.
• Quality and commissioning managers: Searching across issues, specs and meeting decisions helps when checking that a closeout item was actually resolved, and AutoSpecs plus Pype cover the submittal and closeout paperwork.

Teams Whose Records Live in Other Platforms

• Procore-first contractors: An agent inside Procore will see more of their data.
• Small builders without Forma: Adopting a full bundle to get the Assistant is a large step for a small team.
• Buyers who want a separate, priced AI product: The standalone Assistant is planned for 2027, so today it comes with product subscriptions.

Data Completeness and Features Still Rolling Out

• Garbage in: The Assistant answers from Forma records. Keep RFI logs, submittals and meeting minutes current.
• Preview features: Personal Pulse, Assistant Spaces and Assistant Builder were previewed at AU 2026, not released, and AI-generated issues from photos are marked coming soon.
• License coverage: Access depends on license type and permissions, so confirm each role on the team can use it.
• Draft review: Autodesk designs the Assistant for human oversight. Set a rule that drafts sent outside the company get a human read.
• Brand change: Autodesk Construction Cloud products now carry Forma names, so older contracts and training material may use the previous names.

Starting With a Shared Prompt Library

A practical rollout is to pick one active project, agree on five or six questions the team asks every week, such as open RFIs by trade, overdue submittals and decisions from the last owner meeting, and save them to the prompt library. After a month, compare how long the weekly report takes with the Assistant against the month before, and note any answers that were wrong because records were missing. That shows both the time saved and where the project’s data needs cleanup.

Agentic AI Across Forma, Fusion and Flow at AU 2026

On September 16, 2026, Autodesk announced agentic AI across its three industry clouds at Autodesk University in Las Vegas. Autodesk Assistant is generally available across Fusion, Forma and Flow, a next-generation experience is in preview, and a standalone Assistant is planned for 2027. Anagnost said the constraint in these industries has never been ideas but capacity. Marius Jablonskis of Norconsult added that project teams do not work in one tool or one part of a project, which is the problem Assistant Spaces aim to address.

Earlier in the year, Autodesk’s January 2026 construction release added a Help Content agent, meeting minutes as a Project Data Agent source and AI location fill for RFIs, and a March 2026 post confirmed the Assistant was out of beta for construction workflows.

A Sensible First AI Agent for Forma Customers

Autodesk Assistant scores 7.8/10 on our scale. It is included with Forma subscriptions, searches across the records a project team uses every day, and comes with published transparency cards. Autodesk could help buyers by publishing bundle prices and gathering public reviews specific to the Assistant.

For contractors already on Forma, turning it on and building a shared prompt library is a low-risk first step. Teams on other platforms should look at the agent in their own system first, such as Procore Agents or Trimble AI Agents.

Contractors’ Questions About Autodesk Assistant

Is Autodesk Assistant Free With Forma?

Autodesk lists the Assistant as an included capability of the Forma for Construction Operations bundle, so there is no separate charge listed. The bundle itself is priced through Autodesk sales, and access depends on license type and permissions.

What Project Records Can Autodesk Assistant Search?

Specifications, RFIs, issues, submittals, meetings and meeting minutes, change orders and schedules, within the projects a user can access.

Can Autodesk Assistant Create RFIs or Issues on Its Own?

Autodesk describes the Assistant as drafting emails, summaries, reports and dashboards. RFI drafting with AI is part of Forma, and AI-generated issues from photos are listed as coming soon.

How Does Autodesk Handle AI Safety and Data?

Autodesk publishes AI Transparency Cards covering data sources, safeguards and known limits, runs an AI Trust Center and designs the Assistant for human oversight. Answers come from data already stored in the user’s projects.

Will Autodesk Assistant Be Sold Separately?

Autodesk plans a standalone Assistant experience in 2027 and says rollout timing and subscription terms will follow.