We’re about to balance the pros of AutoDesk AI options with some cons. But if you missed it ...

Click here to read Part 1

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General Dangers/Risks Of AI-Assisted AutoCAD

Over-Reliance on Automated Decisions

AI can suggest commands, generate geometry, or interpret markups-but it doesn't understand engineering intent. Relying too heavily on AI may lead to:

Incorrect dimensions or placements

Misinterpretation of design intent

Subtle errors that pass unnoticed until construction

Human review remains critical.


Misinterpretation of Markups (Markup Assist) - AI text recognition can misread:

Handwritten notes

Arrows or sketches

Abbreviations

This can lead to incorrect changes being automatically applied to drawings. Designers must verify all AI-generated edits. Again, requires human review afterwards.


Data Privacy & Security Concerns - Some AI functions send drawing data to cloud services for processing. Risks include:

Exposure of sensitive project details

Compliance issues for government, military, or proprietary designs

Uncertain data retention policies

Organizations need clear data-governance rules before enabling AI tools. This one is tough to avoid, and should really scare folks in highly regulated industries - let’s say electric utilities, for example.


Biased or Non-Standard Drafting Patterns - AI will "learn" from past drawings and repeat patterns. What if those past drawings are not well-done or poorly drawn? Potentially, this can lead to the perpetuation of old mistakes.


Loss of Core Drafting Skills - If new designers rely on AI for commands, annotation, or corrections, they may never develop skills. This weakens long-term team capability. But if the AI and its human supervisors get good enough at their jobs, I doubt management would really care that much about this.


Workflow Disruption - In the short term, introducing AI tools can temporarily slow teams due to:

New training requirements

Changes to established workflows

Confusion about when to trust AI suggestions

Without clear guidelines, AI can become a distraction rather than an improvement.


False Confidence in "Smart" Features - AI may appear intelligent but still produce incorrect assumptions or misread drawings or wrong symbols or block choices

Perceived intelligence can cause designers to trust results too quickly. Once again, the best designers in the future will be the ones who can scan and supervise AI design and correct when needed.


The Takeaway

The wheels are in motion. Just like in most industries, including software design, I feel like AI can do about 70% of the work or replace 7 out of 10 workers, and then 2 or 3 of the remaining humans will be supervising and revising AI work.

Personally, though, I think highly sensitive industries using AutoCAD inherently need to be more careful about their design and engineering. As soon as a transformer is improperly sized in an electric design and it can't handle the load, the lawsuits fly, and power companies will need to slow their AI roll significantly.

Overall, AI-assisted AutoCAD design is not only coming but it's here. And it shouldn't scare us about a superintelligence that much - although I continue to think it should be kept off the grid.

The folks this should scare would be the AutoCAD drafters and engineers who will eventually be put out of work. But that's a problem in every industry.

Happy Thursday!