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.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.ioClick here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 The house fire05:07 A cryptic DM about dad's company06:15 What Piping Technology makes09:56 Family business and the second chair12:43 Every tech wave since dial up17:02 Getting AI to actually spread20:14 The guy who cut the cables24:04 Unveiling a welding cobot26:16 Pope Leo and new collar work35:32 Agents on the quoting desk42:22 The CIO problem44:22 Letting Claude psychoanalyze you49:04 Guardrails and permissions53:11 Five years out57:56 Intention and actionhttps://twitter.com/collide_aihttps://www.tiktok.com/@collide.iohttps://www.facebook.com/collide.iohttps://www.instagram.com/collide.iohttps://www.youtube.com/@collide_iohttps://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai