Village Capital and the Autodesk Foundation are teaming up on a forum to showcase and support early-stage startups that are using artificial intelligence (AI), automation, or robotics to create new jobs in emerging industries, fill gaps in the current workforce, and retrain or upskill workers whose jobs will be automated, freeing them up to focus on higher level tasks. The companies will benefit from peer learning, access to cutting-edge technologies, and executive level mentorship.

The growth of AI, automation, and robotics has disrupted the labor market and is changing the way we work. While one result of automating tasks previously done by people is that some jobs will disappear, increasing levels of automation can also be harnessed to benefit more people, create new jobs in emerging industries, and upskill the workforce to provide job stability.

Applications are open until April 13, 2018 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply now!

Autodesk has always been an automation company, and today more than ever that means helping people make more things, better things, with less; more and better in terms of increasing efficiency, performance, quality, and innovation; less in terms of time, resources, and negative impacts (e.g., social, environmental). This forum is a great way to make more connections to accelerate our efforts.

Automation is alive in the lab.