A 50-Year-Old Pipe Support Company Where 100 Employees Now Build Their Own AI Agents
A garage full of Ethereum rigs once set a house on fire, and that was only the warmup. Rakesh Agrawal and Lloyd Kirchner run Piping Technology & Products, a 50 year old Houston manufacturer where 100 employees now build their own AI agents and a welding cobot just got unveiled to 450 people on the shop floor. Cut cables in West Texas, new collar jobs, Pope Leo, and why the guy with the pickup truck had every reason to be nervous.
Click here to watch a video of this episode.
00:00 The house fire
05:07 A cryptic DM about dad's company
06:15 What Piping Technology makes
09:56 Family business and the second chair
12:43 Every tech wave since dial up
17:02 Getting AI to actually spread
20:14 The guy who cut the cables
24:04 Unveiling a welding cobot
26:16 Pope Leo and new collar work
35:32 Agents on the quoting desk
42:22 The CIO problem
44:22 Letting Claude psychoanalyze you
49:04 Guardrails and permissions
53:11 Five years out
57:56 Intention and action
https://twitter.com/collide_ai
https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io
https://www.facebook.com/collide.io
https://www.instagram.com/collide.io
https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io
https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai
Click here to watch a video of this episode.
Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.
Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
Apply today at collide.io
Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
Apply today at collide.io
00:00 The house fire
05:07 A cryptic DM about dad's company
06:15 What Piping Technology makes
09:56 Family business and the second chair
12:43 Every tech wave since dial up
17:02 Getting AI to actually spread
20:14 The guy who cut the cables
24:04 Unveiling a welding cobot
26:16 Pope Leo and new collar work
35:32 Agents on the quoting desk
42:22 The CIO problem
44:22 Letting Claude psychoanalyze you
49:04 Guardrails and permissions
53:11 Five years out
57:56 Intention and action
https://twitter.com/collide_ai
https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io
https://www.facebook.com/collide.io
https://www.instagram.com/collide.io
https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io
https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai
