Kia ora! Welcome to New Zealand’s weekly roundup of AI news, events, jobs and education.
We’re making a few changes to the newsletter. You’ll still get the same sections, but with more emphasis on tools you can use and how to use them, along with leadership models for applying AI to drive business outcomes. Each week you’ll find:
NZ News: The biggest local stories.
AI Corner Podcast: How business leaders apply AI. Share your story.
Tip of the Week: Quick tricks you can try in minutes.
AI for Business: Practical leadership models and use cases.
AI at Home: Everyday ways to use AI outside the office.
Tech Sector: A revamped look at the Global updates that matter.
Events, Jobs and AI Fail: the usual gang!
AI On The Couch is back after a small hiatus. In this episode, we talk about how to tune ChatGPT to act like your own personal assistant, with tailored responses.
This week’s highlights
👔 Senior leaders can’t sit out AI
🚀 The Two Tracks of AI Adoption
💡 Tip: Bring Your Drawings to Life
🌐 Google’s new Chrome AI browser
🏡 AI at Home: Create kids storybooks
🎓 Auckland Uni kicks off AI internships
🌦️ NZ weather forecasting supercharged
🎙️ Frances Valintine: how AI can scale NZ
🛂 Immigration NZ to cut 500 roles with AI
Happy reading and listening ✌️
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HEADLINE STORY
💵 Datacom CEO warns: stop chatting, start engineering AI
Image from the Datacom article.
📣 Word On The Street: Kiwi tech giant reveals 87% of businesses use AI but most are stuck in proof-of-concept mode, missing real gains.
🔎 Zooming In:
90% of business AI use is basic chat, not solving actual engineering problems worth the investment
Real productivity needs deliberate design and testing, like Datacom's IRD-restricted payroll assistant
Cybersecurity investment cannot be deferred as AI adoption introduces new risks and attack vectors
🏘️ Our Take: Datacom’s CEO is right: 87% of NZ businesses are stuck in proof-of-concept mode, with 90% of AI use limited to chat. In my recent article, The #1 AI Trap Leaders Will Fall Into. And How to Avoid It, I made a point on the same lines that the trap is stopping at inbox clearing or campaign automation and calling it “done”. These are stepping stones every business should execute on, but they are not the ceiling. The real gains come when leaders push past enablement and rewire business models around outcomes, not just tools. That’s how each tech wave before AI played out, the internet reshaped distribution, cloud rewired scale, and mobile + social rewired discovery and interaction. The winners were those who saw beyond the obvious. AI is no different. If NZ firms stop at enablement, we’ll miss the next competitive edge. The challenge for leaders is to leap from “we’ve ticked the box” to “what new outcomes can we deliver that were never possible before?”.
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💼 Business & Industry
New Zealand’s weather forecasting just upgraded from dial-up to broadband. Earth Sciences New Zealand's new Cascade supercomputer delivers three times the computing power of its predecessor. The system makes five-day forecasts as accurate as current two-day predictions, and AI-powered "nowcasting" cuts forecast errors in half and reduces flood modelling from one day to two minutes.
3-min read.
Our take: When energy companies can predict wind patterns days ahead and emergency teams get hours of extra warning time, we're looking at millions saved and lives protected. When tradies can trust five-day forecasts and farmers know exactly when storms will hit, New Zealand businesses save millions in weather-related delays and cancellations. Predictability becomes profit.
A Kiwi workplace expert just called out the biggest AI mistake bosses are making. New Zealand's economy contracted 0.9% in the June quarter, businesses are desperate to cut costs, and many are eyeing AI as the perfect excuse to reduce headcount. Steel says this approach will backfire hard.
2-min read.
Our take: AI creates two value paths - efficiency gains (doing the same work faster) or productivity lift (doing more of the same work with the same team). We shouldn’t sugar coat it that companies with growing demand can reinvest time savings into innovation and protect jobs, but firms facing flat demand often bank the savings through headcount cuts instead of chasing new revenue opportunities. Steel's warning hits home because not every Kiwi business has growing demand to reinvest AI savings into, and that's the brutal reality many firms are grappling with right now.
Aurecon CEO revealed how AI is reshaping the infrastructure industry. Aurecon's Tracey Ryan says AI isn’t replacing workers; her team applies machine learning to infrastructure designs, helping clients make smarter spending decisions on asset-heavy projects. The most creative application involves community engagement, using gaming, virtual reality and digital platforms to help communities visualise major infrastructure projects before they're built.
3-min read.
Our take: Ryan's approach shows how AI can solve New Zealand's infrastructure productivity problem without triggering mass layoffs. Using technology to make better asset decisions and engage communities more effectively creates value that protects jobs rather than eliminating them.
💼 Government & Legal
Immigration NZ plans to automate away 500 jobs over the next seven years. The agency will cut half its visa processing workforce as it rolls out end-to-end automated decision-making through its new Immigration Online platform. Some visa approvals will happen without human oversight by 2032.
2-min read.
Our take: This signals a fundamental rethink of how government operates. Importantly, immigration decisions shape families and futures forever. The efficiency gains are tempting, but accountability becomes murky when algorithms control who gets to call New Zealand home.
New Zealand just signed a commitment with 18 countries in setting global AI data rules. New Zealand joined Australia, Canada, the UK and 15 others to tackle AI risks including discrimination, bias, disinformation and hallucinations. The agreement pushes for privacy-by-design principles in AI development.
4-min read.
Our take: Most AI development happens offshore, so we need international cooperation to protect our data. This collaborative approach gives us more leverage than going it alone.
💼 Education & Society
Auckland University just launched an AI internship programme to solve Kiwi business problems. ASB and the NZ Product Accelerator are pairing 13 master's students with businesses to tackle real-world challenges using AI and data science. The programme targets companies that want to scale but lack internal tech capabilities.
3-min read.
Our take: This bridges the gap between AI hype and practical implementation. Small businesses get cutting-edge skills without hiring full-time data scientists, while students gain experience that actually matters.
🎙️ The AI Corner Podcast
This week’s guest is Frances Valintine, founder of academyEX. Hear:
How AI is reshaping education, business, and national identity in New Zealand.
Frances’ views on generative AI revolution, and why now is the moment for NZ to step into an AI‑first future.
The real blockers holding back AI adoption (mindsets, scale, institutional inertia) in NZ.
💡 Tip of the Week: Bring images to life.
Brought to you by academyEX.
Turn any image into a moving animation with Google Veo 3. Upload a photo, sketch, or even your child’s drawing and watch it come alive. Simply:
Log in to Google Veo 3 (account needed)
Upload your image
Add a prompt to guide the animation
📚️ AI for Business
Helping leaders and teams adapt, learn, and scale with AI.
1️⃣ Google’s New Chrome AI Browser: The AI Onboarding Ramp for Billions
Google’s embedding Gemini across Chrome and Workspace, AI by default for billions.
4-min read.
2️⃣ Efficiency Gains vs Business Transformation with AI
AI delivers two kinds of impact: faster horses that speed up old processes, and teleporters that redesign them entirely. Most NZ businesses are stuck with the first.
2-min read.
3️⃣ n8n workflow: AI Newsletter Filter
Built a lightweight automation to review newsletters, extract important updates, and pipe them into a live searchable Google Sheet.
2 min watch.
4️⃣ AI Isn’t Just for the Young. Senior Leaders, Don’t Count Yourselves Out.
The risk isn’t technical, it’s cultural and strategic. Senior leadership is the bridge that makes AI adoption stick across organisations.
2-min read.
🏡 AI at Home: Create Personalised Storybooks with Your Kids
With Google's Gemini Storybook, you can turn any idea into a custom illustrated picture book (available in 45+ languages) in seconds. Simply:
Visit Gemini Storybook to access Google's AI-powered storytelling tool.
Describe a story as a prompt, such as “using anime art style, and create a story book for my son to be about them becoming an All Black and winning the World Cup”. You can even upload photos to incorporate real memories.
Watch as AI creates a complete 10-page storybook with engaging text and high quality illustrations.
Enjoy the finished story with read-aloud narration, perfect for bedtime or learning time.
Example ideas: Turn your family holiday to Queenstown into an epic adventure; help explain difficult concepts through storytelling; or create a recurring character to star in multiple storybooks.
🌍 Tech Updates From Global
OpenAI
Finalised $100B+ strategic infrastructure partnership with NVIDIA, including plans to deploy 10+ GW data centres and millions of GPUs under a leasing model. For context, New Zealand’s entire electricity grid hits peak demand at ~7 GW.
Introduced GDPval benchmark that tests AI models on realistic, economically valuable tasks across 44 occupations, showing that today’s frontier models (like Claude 4.1 and GPT-5) are already approaching expert-level performance on real-world knowledge work, faster and cheaper than humans, though still limited to one-shot tasks.
Launched ChatGPT Pulse for proactive task organisation and personalised updates.
Sam Altman announced the concept of “Abundant Intelligence”, a vision of making powerful AI a universal resource: accessible, affordable, and transformative for everyone.
Announced roll out of Gemini to Chrome for 3B+ users as part of AI browser launch, and integrated AI into Search Live with voice/camera input.
Launched ‘Learn Your Way’ generative AI education experiment.
Released Frontier Safety Framework 3.0 via DeepMind to manage emergent AI risks.
Unveiled Mixboard for moodboard design creation.
Launched ‘Gemini for Government’ to provide affordable AI to U.S. agencies.
Microsoft
Integrated Claude models Sonnet 4 and Opus 4.1 into Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft 365 tools, signalling a multi-model strategy.
Launched autonomous GitHub Copilot agents to tackle legacy technical debt.
90% of Fortune 500 firms building agents via Copilot Studio.
Piloting Publisher Content Marketplace to compensate creators for AI usage.
Anthropic
Enabled Claude to read Figma files and output production-ready code.
Released universal data connector protocol (MCP) for multi-source model training.
Meta
Launched ‘Vibes’ short-form AI video feed within Meta AI app.
Integrated AI assistant and “Meet Cute” algorithm into Facebook Dating to reduce swipe fatigue.
Partnered with U.S. government to provide Llama models across federal agencies.
NVIDIA
Became OpenAI’s preferred compute and networking partner.
Investing in ElevenLabs and Intel to diversify AI ecosystem and chip roadmap.
Collaborating with Abu Dhabi to open region’s first AI and robotics lab.
xAI
Claimed Grok 4 Fast matches OpenAI-level reasoning with lower operational cost.
Hiring to build Macrohard, a new AI software venture focused on development automation.
Filed lawsuit against OpenAI alleging employee poaching and trade secret theft.
Perplexity
Launched autonomous Email Assistant for Gmail/Outlook inbox management with scheduling, replies, and prioritisation, available to Max subscribers.
Released real-time Search API offering developers direct access to web index.
Apple
Rolled out developer betas featuring generative AI tools within Microsoft Paint through Windows AI Labs collaboration.
Integrating Gemini into Siri for 2026; incorporated Starlink tech via Mode Mobile into broader AI stack.
📅 AI Events in New Zealand
19 AI events across the country this week.
This week’s featured event:
AgentCon Auckland, Fri - Auckland: Global AI Agents World Tour hits Auckland for developers building intelligent assistants and autonomous systems.
📅 Promote your event with us. Reply to let us know.
💼 AI Roles Around Aotearoa
Picklist of 🌶️ HOT 🌶️ new roles in AI this week.
AI Engineering Chapter Lead, Spark: Auckland
💼 Promote your job with us. Reply to let us know.
🤦 ️ AI Fail Of The Week
We all love AI, but it’s certainly far from perfect 🤔 …
Technically they still nailed the brief…
👋 Mike & Erin