We sat down with Co-Founder and CEO Vicki Knott at CruxOCM, a chemical engineer and former control room operator turned entrepreneur on a mission to revolutionize heavy industry through robotic industrial process automation (RIPA™). Just a year ago, CruxOCM secured $17 million Series A funding led by M12, ONEOK, and Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, focusing on making energy control rooms safer, more efficient, and sustainable. CruxOCM’s platform automates complex industrial operations to reduce operator workload and environmental impact while maximizing profitability, starting in the pipeline sector.
Tanya Privé had the pleasure of sitting down with Vicki for a conversation about the origins of CruxOCM, the evolution and future of its AI platform, and how the company is reshaping the way heavy industry control rooms operate.
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TANYA PRIVÉ: Vicki, thank you for being here! It’s been incredible to see what you’ve been able to build with CruxOCM. Let’s start at the beginning. What sparked the idea for CruxOCM, and what problem in the industry first grabbed your attention?
VICKI KNOTT: Tanya, it’s a pleasure to be here! The idea for CruxOCM came from noticing a real gap: the advanced automation I saw in refining and pulp and paper plants wasn’t showing up in the pipeline and midstream sector. When I trained as a control room operator for the Keystone pipeline, it was clear this critical infrastructure was still relying on older approaches.
What stood out most was the absence of combined continuous and discrete process automation. To put it simply, it’s like having your home lighting set up with both an on/off switch and an automatic dimmer that adjusts with the sunset. For instance, keeping the right balance without constant manual input. In pipelines, that means linking actions like pump starts with continuous adjustments to pressures, so you can handle tasks like batch transitions safely while still keeping throughput high.
Recognizing that pipelines were behind other process-driven industries in adopting this kind of automation became the starting point for CruxOCM. Our focus has always been on closing that gap in a way that improves both safety and efficiency.
TANYA: You’ve talked before about the challenges inside control rooms. What were some of the biggest pain points you saw operators facing, and how did that shape your early vision for the company?
VICKI: I’d say the biggest challenge in moving toward autonomous operations is the cognitive burden placed on human operators. We’ve seen two main issues come up again and again.
First, it’s not realistic for an operator to constantly calculate a pipeline’s real-time hydraulic maximum and adjust pressure set points to match. That manual process leaves a lot of performance on the table—long-haul apportioned liquid pipelines often run at around 80–85% utilization, which means there’s typically 5–10% of unused capacity. On apportioned systems, that gap translates into real commercial impact.
Second, the workload itself is punishing. We’ve observed operators clicking in SCADA, or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, nearly once per second for over an hour. That level of sustained focus is exhausting, and fatigue is a major contributor to safety and environmental incidents.
What we’ve been working on at CruxOCM is automating these repetitive, cognitively heavy tasks so operators can focus on higher-level decision-making. The result is more consistent pipeline performance and a reduction in the types of human errors that drive most safety incidents.
TANYA: It’s so neat to hear the story behind your motivation to launch CruxOCM and how your experiences shaped that vision. What you’ve described really highlights the gap in technology adoption across industries and how that opened the door for something new. Building on that, I know human-centered industrial autonomy—is a big part of CruxOCM’s story. Could you walk us through what it is and how it differs from the traditional automation tools companies have relied on?
VICKI: Yes, great question. Human-Centered industrial autonomy is our approach to integrating both discrete and continuous control so that pipeline assets can operate with much greater autonomy. Traditionally, automation in this sector has been limited; field equipment might use continuous control like PID loops, but once you get to the SCADA level, it’s usually just discrete on/off actions with some basic scripting.
What makes human-centered industrial autonomy different is that it bridges those two worlds. By combining the nuance of continuous control with the logic of discrete actions, it can handle the full complexity of pipeline operations in a way that siloed systems can’t. Instead of just automating individual tasks, it creates a more complete, intelligent layer of control across the asset. It’s a bit like home lighting that adjusts with the sunset and then switches off at night, consistent, optimized performance without constant manual input.
TANYA: And of course, innovation is not perfect right away. What lessons have you learned from early deployments that helped refine CruxOCM’s product offerings?
VICKI: Early deployments have taught us two important lessons. The first is that project success really depends on having a clear, shared definition of what “success” actually means. We’ve seen that goals can shift over time, which makes it hard to deliver a project effectively—even when the value is there. To avoid that, we now make sure to establish and document success criteria up front, so everyone is aligned and the finish line doesn’t keep moving.
The second lesson is that re-deployment is just as critical as the initial launch. We’ve built in a structured feedback loop so we can refine and adjust based on how the technology performs in real operations. It’s a bit like medicine; you can have the right treatment, but if it isn’t delivered in a way the body can absorb, it won’t be as effective. We realized the same is true for our products: the core technology was solid, but the way we delivered and integrated it needed to evolve. That shift has reinforced that working with clients is an ongoing partnership, not a one-time handoff.
TANYA: Building off of that, what are you currently focused on, including key technologies and solutions to tackle challenges in the energy and heavy industry ecosystem?
VICKI: Right now, our strategic focus is on finishing the build-out of our agentic architecture—a framework designed to bring more speed and accuracy to heavy industry control systems. This does represent a shift from traditional industrial automation, where configuring and installing PLC and SCADA platforms is still a fairly manual process. What we’re building are tools that make it easier to set up, troubleshoot, and maintain our software, supporting the full lifecycle of the applications. The inspiration comes from the seamless connectivity and security of modern cloud-native systems, similar to what has already transformed industries like fintech.
Historically, commissioning control system technology has been a manual process. This was not only inefficient but also misaligned with the modern enterprise’s expectation for swift, agile technology deployment. We quickly recognized this as a critical bottleneck.
Our new suite of “software deployment” technologies directly addresses this challenge. This platform automates the entire lifecycle of our control system software, from rigorous testing and deployment to seamless rollback and validation. By transforming this once-manual process, we are enabling our clients to rapidly commission, scale, and update their operations, ensuring they can leverage cutting-edge technology without the traditional drag of legacy commissioning practices. We have our very first client piloting this methodology in the Crux environment beginning next quarter, and we look forward to a close collaboration to achieve self-service and flexibility of the Crux experience.
TANYA: That’s incredibly exciting! What are some significant milestones accomplished that demonstrate the real-world value and adoption of your automation solutions?
VICKI: I’m glad you asked! Definitely the challenge with bringing AI into control rooms is that these systems, or operational technology, were never designed for real-time data or modern AI tools. Our first focus was building the secure infrastructure to bridge that gap. With that in place, we’re now layering in natural-language AI capabilities. Imagine operators being able to ask the system questions in plain English, whether it’s troubleshooting issues, getting interactive training, or automating compliance documentation. We already have a beta version of that in development.
Looking ahead, we see AI becoming a co-pilot in the control room. It will manage complexity and optimize performance, while operators can focus on higher-level strategy and decision-making. That’s where we see the future going.
TANYA: You mentioned AI evolving into a true co-pilot in the control room. Building on that vision, how do you see autonomous control room operations shaping the future of heavy industry and energy—and what role will CruxOCM play in driving that transformation?
VICKI: We see autonomous control rooms evolving from broad, one-size-fits-all solutions to approaches that are more vertical and specialized. Traditional Advanced Process Control providers have typically offered horizontal systems that deliver modest performance gains, often in the 3–5% range, with limited operator engagement. They also tend to be costly, which puts them out of reach for many segments like oil fields, gas plants, and smaller facilities.
Our work with RIPA™ takes a different path. By combining discrete and continuous control in products designed for specific use cases, we’ve been able to achieve stronger performance and higher operator adoption. Early results point to improvements of around 7% with much greater operator utilization, showing what’s possible when solutions are tailored to the realities of particular industries.
Looking ahead, we see our role as helping expand this more specialized approach into new segments of heavy industry: making advanced automation more practical and effective where traditional horizontal systems haven’t been a fit.
TANYA: Vicki, thank you for such a thoughtful conversation. I can’t wait to see how CruxOCM continues to redefine what’s possible in energy automation.
VICKI: Thank you, Tanya. It has been a pleasure talking with you.
