Findings from Autodesk's 2027 State of Design and Make report — drawn specifically from Australian respondents — point to supply chain vulnerability and cost pressures as the top concerns among businesses operating across the local design and construction sectors. The findings were gathered from 443 business leaders based in Australia and feed into a worldwide survey of close to 5,500 respondents spanning five industry sectors: architecture, engineering, construction and operations, product design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment.

Geopolitical tensions were cited by 55 per cent of Australian respondents as a source of vulnerability in their supply chains, up from 47 per cent recorded the previous year. The increase in that figure reflects the extent to which concerns rooted in global instability are weighing on local enterprises.

Keeping expenditure in check ranked among the foremost pressures, with nearly four in ten survey participants pointing to cost oversight and financial management as the most significant operational hurdle for design and manufacturing businesses across Australia, driven by inflationary conditions and unpredictable swings in raw material pricing.

The data also pointed to a shift in the types of pressures businesses were contending with. Technology-related pressures — spanning artificial intelligence, automation, and digitisation — recorded the steepest increase among all tracked concerns, even as supply chains and costs held their position at the top of the list. One in three Australian respondents — 33 per cent — identified AI and related technological developments as a pressure point, up from 24 per cent recorded in 2025. Concern about the automation of data processes and the push toward digitisation climbed from 18 per cent to 25 per cent across that period.

Data gathered through the survey indicate those pressures converging with a workforce gap — specifically, a shortage of personnel equipped to drive digital transformation. Workforce shortages, defined as the gap between available employees and the technical capabilities employers require, topped the list of obstacles holding back digital uptake among Australian businesses, with 35 per cent of those surveyed identifying this as their primary hurdle, a share that outpaced every other impediment captured by the research.

More specific barriers also grew in prominence. Gaps in digital knowledge or technical capability were flagged by 34 per cent of respondents, up from 27 per cent the previous year, while doubts about the reliability of available tools climbed to 29 per cent from 24 per cent. Twenty-seven per cent attributed the gap to constraints within available tools, a share that had stood at 22 per cent previously.

Workforce shortages in this area have been linked to shifts in where businesses direct their spending. Across Australian businesses surveyed, nearly half reported having made meaningful progress on digital transformation, yet those actively channelling resources into it — whether by treating it as a priority or pursuing it with high investment intensity — fell to just 12 per cent, down from 21 per cent recorded in 2025. Resistance to technology adoption held back a further 14 per cent of organisations, while an additional 26 per cent reported relying on such tools despite internal pushback.

Autodesk's Regional Director for Australia and New Zealand, Dr Haren Sam, pointed to the twin pressures of managing costs and navigating supply chain disruptions as factors weighing on day-to-day business operations, noting that keeping expenditure in check remained a persistent concern for Australian companies, compounded by ongoing instability across supply networks. Dr Sam noted that unpredictable swings in the price of raw materials make precise project-cost forecasting a persistent challenge for design and manufacturing businesses, and that adopting digital tools can help those organisations maintain financial control.

Workforce gaps in digital literacy, combined with broader labour supply constraints and uneven technical capability, are acting as a brake on the digital transformation of Australian businesses operating in the design and manufacturing sectors, he noted, adding that these pressures are also weighing on productivity in industries that have historically recorded low output growth. Sam said the industry — one that had devoted considerable effort over many years to building its productivity — was now facing mounting strain from the current situation.

According to the findings, AI tools are being incorporated into routine workplace tasks as organisations chart different paths through a period of technological change. Among Australian participants, two in five reported folding AI into their design processes, and just over a third said they were putting resources toward AI-related training and upskilling. A further third of respondents reported that their organisations were rolling out AI-powered automation alongside upgrades to data analytics capabilities.

Roughly half of respondents — 52 per cent — reported ongoing difficulties putting AI into practice, while the remaining 48 per cent placed themselves at or near their targets for the technology. Dr Sam noted that the pace of technological change had itself become a pressure point for organisations working to adapt, pointing out that rapid advances in artificial intelligence, combined with a shortage of workers with digital skills, were leaving many design and manufacturing organisations struggling to keep pace. Sam noted that organisations that had previously regarded themselves as frontrunners in AI uptake were now reporting a sense of having lost ground.

Respondents also expressed a degree of confidence in how their data was being handled. Among those surveyed, nearly seven in ten reported that their organisation had a trusted partner handling data management and digital transformation, and a comparable share — about 70 per cent — pointed to a dedicated individual or team whose role centred on consolidating and overseeing internal data.