Autodesk Cuts 7 Percent Of Workforce Amid Push Toward Direct Sales

“I recognize the weight of this news, particularly as it follows the organizational changes we made last year,” Autodesk President and CEO Andrew Anagnost said.

Design and engineering software vendor Autodesk plans to eliminate about 7 percent of its workforce, about 1,000 employees, amid big changes to how the company works with solution providers and resellers.

A significant portion of the layoffs by the San Francisco-based company is in customer-facing sales functions, Autodesk said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The layoffs are not an effort to replace people with AI, driven by the external environment or expected to become an annual process at the company.

In a letter to employees dated for Thursday and signed by Autodesk President and CEO Andrew Anagnost, the executive said the primary driver for the layoffs is the completion of a multi-year go-to-market (GTM) transformation.

“I recognize the weight of this news, particularly as it follows the organizational changes we made last year,” Anagnost said. “We remain steadfast in our belief that technology is only as powerful as the people who use it and humans will always be the most important part of the equation. This announcement reflects a deliberate decision by leadership to align our organization with our long-term strategy and the opportunities ahead.”

The strategic shifts prompting the layoffs include simplifying how customers engage with Autodesk; expanding its AI, platform, and industry cloud leadership; and realigning investments to ensure corporate function teams remain resilient, modern and scalable as they support transformation across the business, Anagnost said.

Autodesk has been rolling out a new transaction model since fiscal year 2023 wherein customers receive quotes from solution providers but Autodesk handles that actual transaction directly, according to a regulatory filing. The company has also invested in improving the direct buying experience through its online store.

Autodesk Layoffs

CRN has reached out to Autodesk for comment.

In February 2025, Anagnost announced the layoff of about 9 percent of the company’s workforce, coming out to about 1,350 people.

The company–perhaps best known for its AutoCAD design software–expects total pre-tax restructuring charges of about $135 million to $160 million. Most of the cash expenditures will show up in fiscal year 2027 results. That fiscal year ends Jan. 31, 2027, according to the regulatory filings.

Autodesk also expects to reinvest a portion of the resulting savings in key strategic priorities across the company throughout that fiscal year. It will record pre-tax restructuring charges of about $90 million to $110 million in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2026, which ends on Jan. 31, and the remainder during fiscal year 2027.

Autodesk should complete the restructuring plan by the end of its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027, according to the filings.

“To our team members who are impacted, I want to extend my sincere appreciation for your contributions to Autodesk,” he said. “Many of you have been instrumental in the transformation journey that brought us to where we are today. You have built the foundation of this company and will always be a part of Autodesk’s story.”

In a report Thursday, investment firm William Blair said it believes Autodesk that the layoffs are not due to the current business environment given a previously disclosed preliminary outlook for fourth-quarter results to be above the high end of the previous guidance range.

Autodesk also now expects fourth-quarter and full-year billings, revenue, free cash flow and other metrics to be above the high end of previously provided guidance ranges, according to the firm’s report. William Blair sees the firm as heading toward a fiscal year 2029 operating margin target of 41 percent.

Autodesk joins Kaseya as one of the earliest technology companies to announce layoffs just weeks into 2026.

Major Channel Changes

In November, Autodesk reported financial results for the third quarter of its 2026 fiscal year. The quarter ended Oct. 31 with $1.9 billion in billings, up 21 percent year on year; $1.9 billion in revenue, up 18 percent year on year; and an operating margin using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) of 25 percent, up 3 points year on year.

The vendor has been moving channel incentives more toward new business than on renewals. The company reported that indirect sales channel net revenue fell 31 percent year on year in the most recent fiscal quarter to $626 million. Direct revenue grew 85 percent year on year to $1.2 billion.

Looking at the nine months ended Oct. 31, indirect sales channel net revenue fell 24 percent to $2 billion while direct revenue grew 78 percent to $3.2 billion.

The CEO said on the earnings call that he hasn’t seen any behavioral shifts by partners under the new incentive structure, according to a transcript.

“We’re not trying to take money out of the channel ecosystem,” he said. “We’re trying to shift how it gets paid out. Makes total sense to them.”

During that quarterly earnings call, Anagnost said to watch Autodesk “incenting the channel more on new business than on renewals, which is going to align the channel with kind of our long-term objectives,” according to a transcript.

“It’s easier to make renewals now, so we should be paying less on renewals, and we should be paying more on new business so that the channel can build the right kind of capacity for the new business and hunt a bit more and renew in a more automated way,” he said. “Look for us to continue to push that as we head into next year, tighter intelligence going into the channel, more efficiency, more automation, more self-service tied to renewals, and a stronger emphasis on new business generation.”

Autodesk Chief Financial Officer Janesh Moorjani said on the call the vendor has tried to address operational friction partners faced under the company’s new transaction model.

“We’ve made very good progress,” Moorjani said, according to a transcript. “I think much of that is behind us at this point in time. There’s a bit more to be done, but we are well on our way. … In terms of the future, we continue to focus on how we and our partners can deliver more valuable and data-driven and connected products and services to our customers.”

Autodesk has seen lower-end customers who used to buy from partners now buy from Autodesk directly with some larger partners now focused on building out value-added services, the CFO said.

In Autodesk’s 2025 fiscal year annual report, the company disclosed that it had about 1,260 resellers and distributors worldwide with 58 percent of its revenue from indirect channel sales.

Autodesk’s stock was up about 4 percent Thursday as of 10 a.m. Pacific time. It traded at about $267 a share. The stock has fallen about 11 percent over the past six months and about 12 percent the past year.