Bridging Water, Power and Oil: Lessons from ADIPEC on AI, Workforce and Energy Demand

In this episode ofT&D World Live, host Nikki Chandler speaks with Bob Crossen, Vice President of Content for Endeavor B2B's Water and Energy Group, about his first experience attending ADIPEC — the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference. While historically viewed as an oil and gas–focused event, ADIPEC proved to be a much broader forum addressing power generation, electricity, digital transformation and global energy challenges.

Crossen begins by sharing his professional background in the municipal water and wastewater sector and how stepping into a broader energy-focused role has highlighted both differences and strong parallels across industries. He describes ADIPEC as massive in scale, with thousands of exhibitors, tens of thousands of attendees per day and a strong emphasis on conducting business directly on the show floor. Unlike many water and utility conferences, ADIPEC prioritizes exhibitor engagement over educational programming, with large, multi-level booths designed for meetings and contract discussions.

Throughout the conversation, Crossen reflects on the similarities between water, power, and oil and gas sectors, particularly in shared technologies such as pumps, cooling systems, generators and digital monitoring tools. He notes that while the technical language and applications differ, many of the underlying operational challenges are the same. Trends like digitalization, smart systems, AI-driven analytics and operational optimization are influencing all sectors, driven by the need to improve efficiency, reliability and business performance.

Workforce challenges emerge as a major theme. Crossen highlights the global nature of skilled labor shortages, noting the widespread retirement of experienced workers and the resulting loss of institutional knowledge. Drawing on data from water industry surveys, he explains how the departure of long-tenured professionals is accelerating, raising questions about how industries will replace expertise accumulated over decades.

The discussion then turns to artificial intelligence and autonomy, two dominant topics at ADIPEC. Crossen explains how industry leaders view autonomy as a long-term goal, enabled by advancements in AI. He outlines the distinction between automation—systems following predefined rules — and autonomy, where systems can detect issues, make decisions and resolve problems with minimal human intervention. High-risk environments, such as offshore oil and gas operations, were frequently cited as areas where robotics and autonomous systems could improve safety by reducing human exposure.

Crossen also introduces the concept of agentic AI, drawing on conversations with companies like ABB and Schneider Electric. Agentic AI refers to specialized AI “agents” that focus on specific operational functions and communicate across disparate systems that were not originally designed to work together. These tools could help operators identify problems, recommend actions and preserve legacy knowledge as experienced workers retire. However, both Crossen and Chandler emphasize that trust, human oversight and change management remain essential, particularly as organizations navigate the balance between machine decision-making and human responsibility.

The episode concludes with insights into how ADIPEC framed the global energy conversation. Rather than focusing solely on an “energy transition,” leaders emphasized “energy addition,” acknowledging that growing electricity demand — driven by data centers, AI and industrial growth — requires expanding total energy capacity while diversifying the energy mix. Crossen shares observations from live polling at the event that suggested nuclear energy could play a significantly larger role in the future.