As APAC pours more money into AI, accuracy and security overtake job loss as top concerns: Report

As businesses across the Asia-Pacific region accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence, their concerns around the technology are shifting from fears of job displacement to more immediate questions around security and accuracy, according to Autodesk’s 2026 State of Design & Make: AI Pulse.

Security emerged as the biggest concern among APAC respondents, with 63% citing it as a concern, up from 56% in 2025. Concerns around AI accuracy also rose sharply, from 42% to 55%. At the same time, concerns around job losses fell from 32% to 24%, while plagiarism concerns declined from 33% to 26%.

The shift comes as AI becomes more embedded in business processes. The survey found that 42% of APAC organisations had increased their AI investment significantly or substantially, while 61% identified generative AI as an investment priority for the next 12 months. AI agents were a priority for 44% of respondents.

From chatbots to the design workflow

The data suggests that AI adoption is moving beyond standalone assistants and into specialised tools used by design and make industries.

AI-enabled CAD software saw one of the sharpest increases in adoption in APAC, rising to 50% in 2026 from 29% in 2025. AI-enabled design programmes were used by 53% of respondents, up from 42%, while modelling tools increased from 32% to 47%. Project management platforms also rose from 38% to 47%.

Other applications included AI tools for personalising user experiences, which rose to 43% from 31%, and supply-chain optimisation, which increased to 34% from 24%. The share of respondents saying they used none of the listed AI-enabled tools fell from 12% to 3%.

For Autodesk, whose report covers architecture, engineering, construction and operations, design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment, the movement of AI into CAD, modelling and design software is particularly relevant. The data points to AI becoming part of the tools used to create and manage physical products and projects, rather than remaining confined to general-purpose generative AI applications.

AI’s impact is showing up in innovation

Innovation is emerging as one of the clearest areas where respondents see AI making a difference. In APAC, 72% of respondents reported a positive impact from AI on innovation, up seven percentage points from the previous year.

Productivity and decision-making also showed substantial positive impact, while 57% reported positive effects on the quality of output. Among AI Early Adopters, the perceived impact was considerably higher: 80% reported positive effects on innovation, 79% on quality of output and 72% on decision-making, compared with 70%, 64% and 59%, respectively, among other respondents.

The next step is AI agents

While generative AI remains the biggest investment priority in APAC at 61%, process automation follows at 54%, with AI agents at 44%.

The report found that 64% of respondents expect to use agentic AI within the next year. That includes 51% planning to adopt it and 13% that are already using it.

The infrastructure problem

The biggest obstacles are not necessarily a lack of interest in AI. APAC organisations cited integration with existing systems as their top challenge at 46%, followed by a lack of talent and skills at 45%, regulatory concerns at 43%, implementation costs at 42% and data quality at 40%.

That gap is also visible in AI training. While 87% of respondents said mastering AI tools would better position them for opportunities in their industry, only 57% said the AI training available to them was sufficient.

“India’s rapid AI adoption reflects far more than technology uptake- it signals the country’s growing leadership as a global innovation and engineering powerhouse”, said Haresh Khoobchandani, Vice President, APAC & Japan at Autodesk. “For industries that design and make the world around us- from infrastructure and manufacturing to architecture and construction, AI is becoming a strategic enabler of design innovation, productivity and resilience. As India progresses towards the vision of Viksit Bharat, the ability to combine world-class talent with trusted, industry-specific AI will strengthen its position as a global technology innovation leader.”