About Antonio Pietri
Antonio Pietri, President and CEO of Aspen Technology, has stated that the company's software, historically used to drive efficiencies and profitability, is increasingly being applied to decarbonization efforts. He noted that the same technologies used to model hydrocarbons are now being used for renewables, hydrogen, and biofuels. Pietri said the company is commercializing a CO2 management technology acquired from Aramco and has developed an emissions management solution through an advisory group in the Middle East. He described AspenTech as "central to achieving Net Zero carbon emissions" and said customers have told the company it is "uniquely positioned" in this area.
Pietri has discussed the company's approach to artificial intelligence, stating that AspenTech integrates AI capabilities with "first principles of engineering" to provide guardrails for deployment in complex industrial assets. He said customers are becoming more discerning about the type of AI they deploy, differentiating between large language models and AI algorithms for specific use cases. Pietri also commented on the energy transition, saying that scaling technologies like hydrogen and biofuels will take time and that the focus through 2030 should be on driving efficiencies. He added that the company is monitoring quantum computing, which he described as "quite disruptive" once commercially available at scale.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Antonio Pietri's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Interviewer0:06
Antonio Petri is President and Chief Executive Officer at Aspen Technology. A busy few days for you, Antonio.
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Antonio Pietri0:15
They have been, they have been, and they always are. This is our fifth ADIPEC, and it keeps growing and getting better every year.
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Interviewer0:22
Now, of course, decarbonization is the major focus of ADIPEC this year. How is AspenTech approaching the need for decarbonization within the organization?
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Antonio Pietri0:31
Yeah, well, look, our solutions historically have been used to drive efficiencies, and really efficiencies to create profitability. But over the last three to five years, with a shift towards sustainability, those efficiencies also reduce CO2 emissions. So what we're seeing is our solutions being used more and more towards decarbonization, researching new types of sustainability pathways such as hydrogen and biofuels, and that's also part of the reason why we're here.
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Interviewer1:06
Tell us about one or more of the exciting offerings that you're showcasing this week.
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Antonio Pietri1:11
Yeah, well, look, last year at ADIPEC we announced a partnership with Aramco where we acquired a technology that Aramco developed around the uses and sources for CO2. Over the last year we've been productizing, and now we're going to commercialize that product, and that will be soon announced at COP28. So that's a new solution that we're introducing. We've also developed, through an advisory group here in the Middle East, an emissions management solution, and we're having a meeting with that group on Thursday this week as well. So there are many exciting developments both to drive operational excellence in our customers' assets, especially with that, but also to drive decarbonization.
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Interviewer2:05
Now you did mention COP28. Achieving net zero and the other decarbonization goals will depend heavily on deployment of innovative new systems. How confident are you that you're an integral part of this?
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Antonio Pietri2:19
We are central to achieving net zero carbon emissions. Our customers actually tell us that we're uniquely positioned in this area. The same technologies that have been used historically to model molecules in hydrocarbons are now being used to model molecules in renewables, hydrogen, biofuels, circularity. So we're working very hard to introduce more use cases in our products so that our products and solutions are more relevant for our customers. And in addition, sustainability is new to a lot of companies, so we've introduced a whole curriculum of competency development, and we're finding that our customers are very interested in that because they need to increase the capabilities of their workforce around sustainability.
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Interviewer3:11
Now you are a solutions guy running a solutions company, but for solutions you need challenges. What are the main challenges that your customers are facing?
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Antonio Pietri3:22
Yeah, well, look, I think the main challenge for customers around decarbonization and the energy transition is that it's a very complex one. There's a lot of challenges and opportunity, and what we're seeing is that our customers are looking for partners, companies that they can partner with to help them in this transition. Every company will have a different pathway to net zero carbon emissions, so what you're seeing is different companies and constituencies coming together around these different customers to help them in their transition. And that's how we're positioning ourselves: we want to be a partner to our customers around technology.
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Interviewer4:01
Antonio Petri, thank you very much for speaking to us.
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Antonio Pietri4:03
Thank you, glad to be here.
