Episode summary
How a Water Technology Provider Is Using AI | At Barron's
At Barron's
· · Hosts: Andy Serwer · Guests: Matthew Pine
Summary
Xylem’s CEO Matthew Pine argued that water is a core but underappreciated input to public health, food security, energy, and economic growth, and that the company sits across the water value chain by moving, treating, and measuring water. He said the industry is under pressure from extreme weather, aging infrastructure, water scarcity, and forever chemicals, but also sees opportunity in digital tools and services.
Pine said AI is already useful in wastewater management and leak detection. He described smart metering, sensors, digital twins, and co-pilots that help operators see pressure in the system, predict rain, redirect flows, and reduce losses. He said 20 to 30% of drinking water leaks out of pipes before reaching homes and businesses, making conservation and operational efficiency a major business driver.
On growth, Pine said Xylem’s scale comes from spanning the whole treatment train, including technologies for capturing PFAS and potentially destroying them, plus international demand in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He said investors have responded to a simpler operating model, margin improvement, and a healthy M&A pipeline, while he emphasized leadership, culture, and execution as the key reasons shareholders should own the stock.
Key takeaways
- Pine said Xylem is using AI, sensors, and digital twins to help utilities predict rainfall, manage pressure, and reduce leaks.
- He said 20 to 30% of drinking water leaks out of pipes before reaching end users, making nonrevenue water a major opportunity.
- Pine said Xylem owns about 90% of the treatment train in municipal and drinking-water plants, giving it broad exposure to PFAS treatment and destruction.
- He said the company’s self-help plan has already lifted EBITDA margin performance by 300 to 400 basis points over two to three years.
- Pine said Xylem’s markets are global, with about 60% of revenue in the Americas and 40% elsewhere.
Notable quotes
“Water is the Achilles heel of the AI economy. I I can't remember when I said that. I probably did say it, but um”
“we can come in with AI technology and machine learning and sensor the network and help them predict where the rain is going to happen”
“20 to 30% of water that's produced for drinking leaks out of the pipes before it gets to the person the person's home or the business”
“We own about 90% of what we call the treatment train”
“there's secular trends that line up there, but it's about execution”
How the episode opens
Hello everyone and welcome to At Barren. I'm Andy Surer and welcome to our guest Matthew Pine, CEO of Asylum, which is a water technology company. Matthew, welcome. — Thank you. Good to be here. — So my first question is what is a water technology company? What is it you all do?
That's a great question. Um, our purpose as a company is to build a more water secure world by empowering our customers and communities. Um, I would say that water is the biggest resource out there today, um, in terms of value that is probably underappreciated, right?
It's informing public health, um, food security, it's informing energy industry and really economic prosperity. So the problem is a lot of the industry is really challenged right now because you've got extreme weather events. You've had underinvestment in infrastructure.
You've got forever chemicals and things like that in the water. So the system is pretty stressed right now. But Zyllem has a lot of solutions to solve those problems right now.
That's what we're doing right now. We move water, we treat water, we measure water um across really the water infrastructure and that's municipal industry and in in buildings across the country. — Now you were spun out of ITT what in 2011 and the name Zyllem means
It's the tissue in plants that transfers water in Greek. — Yes. — Yeah. And so what are some of the the specific businesses and products that your company has Matthew? So like I said, we we move water, we treat water, we measure, we measure water. So we have four segments and they're a proxy for different things. So our metrology business is a proxy for really clean water management. So we have a focus on clean water management, drinking water.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai in water technology
- water usage
- forever chemicals treatment
- treatment train
- water technology
Companies and tickers mentioned
- XYL
- Xylem
Watch the episode
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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