I am part of the Corporate Strategy Team at Autodesk whose purpose is to assist the CEO and senior executives in developing and implementing company-level strategy to help Autodesk operate intentionally as an integrated, coordinated system. Further, it is to catalyze Autodesk’s long-term thoughts about the industries we serve and synthesize stories that articulate those thoughts and place them in the context of company strategy. One way to catalyze our thinking is to bring in external experts who have a different perspective and point of view. As such, the Visiting Fellows program was put in place.

The Autodesk Visiting Fellows Program recruits senior-level, industry-shaping talent to help light the future path of Autodesk. Although fellows have rich sectoral expertise, they tend to focus on defining and pursuing cross-industry issues emerging at the intersection of our traditional markets and technologies. For example, construction and manufacturing are converging. This has implications for the future of work. How can Autodesk better serve its customers given this future?

Marco Annunziata joined the Visiting Fellows program to provoke and deepen our point of view on the Future of Work. Marco analyzes the interplay of innovation and global economic trends, and assesses the impact on business models and strategies. He has worked in policy, finance, and industry — most recently as GE's Chief Economist and Head of Business Innovation Strategy. Marco is a regular contributor to Forbes.com. Check out his most recent post:

Read Marco's article.

The future of work is not one where robots take our jobs. Instead, robots augment our abilities. Instead of providing universal basic income, which in addition to be a disincentive to work, companies need to provide toolsets for those future jobs, training for the required skillsets, and help everyone change their mindsets towards a new reality. As far as universal basic income goes, if adopted, without an increase in the supply of goods and services, prices would simply rise so that those who rely solely on universal basic income would be no better off than today's unemployed.

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). Doing more and better with less can help meet the demands of tomorrow's workforce.

The future of work itself is alive in the lab.