WPC 2026: Meet the speaker

Matthew Griffin comes from an academic background, with his career starting out in the field of marine biology and oceanography before pivoting to take up positions like the global head of sales at Atos, Europe’s largest system integrator, and EMC, and heading up IBM’s national security business.

“During my time at these companies, hundreds of thousands of people were laid off because the businesses couldn’t understand or see what the future held in terms of cloud-based computer systems,” explains Matthew. “When this change came, it hit these businesses hard and they lost most of their market capitalisation.”

Matthew was recruited to IBM to disrupt the status quo to enable the company to dominate the security industry, which he successfully achieved.

“Ultimately, national security agencies want to understand what the next decade will hold,” explains Matthew. “I developed a futures programme, which included executive education, technology and foresight investigation, and reading signals. These were then used to show companies what the future of their business might look like, which helped secure a number of clients.”

Having worked on the future for these organisations in different capacities, Matthew decided to work for himself, analysing data to inform other companies about what the future of their businesses might be. “Based on today’s real-world observations, we do our best to try to understand what tomorrow’s world could look like,” summarises Matthew.

Future focused

During his session at the WPC, Matthew will be covering subjects including the future of jobs and skills, emerging technologies, and major trends in the plumbing and heating industry.

“There has been a lot of investment in the use AI technology in the utilities industry to detect leaks and save water, as well as within the building sector for integrated information systems, in addition to smoothing out supply chain volatility,” explains Matthew.

Technology is increasingly being used to improve efficiency, with the use of acoustic sensors highlighting leaks in urban environments. Single filter systems have been introduced to make purifying water more effective, less toxic enzymes are now being used at water treatment facilities, and AI is being used for compliance and to regulate systems.

“There has been a shift to commercialising water and treating it more like a service,” explains Matthew. “There are new risk models available, which enable AI to be used for modelling insurance for water facilities. Improvements have been made in water security by improving the circular water economy. However, the biggest problem the water industry faces is moving it from A to B.

"One of the ways to improve this is by getting rid of the failing infrastructure. One solution that would enable this is though air capture, which can be used with heat exchangers to produce water. This would remove the need for buildings to be connected to mains water supplies, with nothing for water companies to maintain. In this scenario, the role of plumbing doesn’t really change that much as plumbers and heating engineers would be required to service the heating and hot water systems inside buildings.”

Role of AI

When thinking about how the UK plumbing and heating industry will evolve, if we look to China, it is clear that the future of construction lies in robotics. The country has already deployed humanoid robots, with the robotisation of plumbing for new build-constructions in its early stages.

“Propagation is vital,” says Matthew. “We need organisations that are visionary and that want to embrace technology to improve productivity and save costs. Unfortunately, in the UK those organisations are few and far between.

“There is increasing demand to automate the construction of a building as much as possible, using robotics for installing cables and plumbing. At the moment, the technology is still very much on the drawing board, but it is starting to filter through.

“When you look at the industry from plumbers’ perspectives, for the most part, technology is a positive step. Smart meters, self-diagnostics, IoT and smart infrastructure improve efficiency of processes and AI can be used to get quotes out to customers faster. There won’t be a huge amount of change in their day-to-day work. Put it this way, AI will automate software developers before it replaces plumbers.”

Filling the gap

There is already a significant skills gap in the plumbing and heating industry, and this looks set to widen given the pace of technology and demand for experienced tradespeople. “Increasing trade skills is vital,” says Matthew.

“In the UK we are trying to fill the skills gap by recruiting more people and upskilling the current workforce, but in other countries they are trying to fill the gap with technology. Some of the robots being developed in China are increasingly capable of taking on human tasks. Costing as little as £6,000, they can be leased out over significant periods, offering construction companies savings.

“Robotics is decades away from significantly impacting the plumbing and heating industry,” says Matthew. “The plumbing industry as a whole, especially the domestic segment, is fairly safe for now.”

Register for WPC 2026

WPC is coming to Britain in parallel with InstallerSHOW from 23-25 June 2026 at the NEC Birmingham, and CIPHE members can register now for discounts on entry. Visit forms.reg.buzz/wpc-202... to register for tickets.