Robots Are Taking Over Oil Rigs… But Not How You Think

Andrew Richard, CEO and Co-Founder of Automated Rig Technologies, flies in from Calgary to break down why the oilfield spent 70 years optimizing brute force instead of rethinking the process. He gets into the jointed pipe injector that strips 97% of operator input out, what rig hands call the "barbecue basket," why everyone in oil and gas wants to be first to be second, and the IKEA chatbot that accidentally solved the automation jobs debate.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 - Calgary, metaverse throwbacks, and meet Andrew02:20 - What Automated Rig Technologies actually does05:50 - Starting in the basement in 200907:44 - The jointed pipe injector breakdown09:13 - Red zone risk and the barbecue basket17:05 - From Energy Tech Night pitch to the Bakken trial20:22 - How 15 people get in front of major operators24:14 - Marketing, trust, and selling the sizzle30:30 - The automation jobs debate, ATMs and IKEA36:03 - The dangerous jobs that shouldn't exist38:11 - Change management and first to be second42:15 - Bad data is a platform problem44:59 - What's next with AI and datahttps://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