Building Your Firm's AI Adoption Plan

After many years of attending Autodesk University, I finally decided to put in a few submissions to speak at this year's conference in Las Vegas. I'm happy to report that two of them were selected. As if the submissions weren't already a lot of effort, now the real work begins.

The thesis

Throughout my ongoing conversations across the industry, even with the current AI boom we're going through, I'm still finding most architecture and engineering firms don't have a written AI strategy. I'm not talking about firms who say, "we're exploring it." I'm talking about an actual document with named owners, defined risks, and a timeline. Perhaps you can relate.

So I proposed this idea as one of my topics for AU 2026 and, lo and behold, it was selected (which you probably already picked up on). Cool, I thought... I just have to create everything for the September workshop then, right? But then I had an idea: if attendees are going to sign up for my session, it would be even better if they came prepared so we could get even more out of the 90 minute workshop.

So here's what's happening

I've teamed up with Kenton Grant for this talk, and we're going to host a live stream next week (details and registration below) and walk through what we call the Digital Practice OS Assessment together — a 9-dimension diagnostic across capability, alignment, and accountability. You'll be able score your own firm using our worksheet and get a clear read on where you actually stand and where to start.

Don't have an AI adoption plan yet? This free live session is the first step toward changing that.

Next Wednesday 7/15 at 9:00 am PST / 12:00 pm EST, we'll be doing the first of two live streams to introduce the session and get you started and come prepared for the main event in September. This is Session 1 of 2.

Session 2 on July 22 covers three scoring scenarios and live Q&A.

What you'll get

• You'll learn how to assess a Digital Practice OS score for your firm
• A preview of the AU 2026 hands-on workshop where you'll turn that score into a 30-day action plan

Register to attend

When you register, you'll get a calendar invitation and link to the session. If you can't make it to the live stream, the link will also take you the recorded session which will be posted afterword.

Get the worksheet

And if you're planning on going to AU this year, I would love to connect with you in Vegas. Perhaps you'll even consider bookmarking the sessions to attend once the course schedule comes out!