Kia ora! Welcome to New Zealand’s weekly roundup of AI news, events, jobs and education.

What do we think of the neon blue lights? 😂

To catch up those who missed it, we’ve started AI On The Couch: Erin asks the AI questions she’s curious about, I (Mike) try to answer, all in 5–7 min episodes.

This week’s chinwag: vibe coding, building apps by telling AI “I want it rounder, bluer, like Airbnb” instead of writing code. I first came across the concept in South America back in January, when I spun up a travel budget tracker on Lovable and was blown away by how much you can build with just prompts.

Vibe coding has since become mainstream: Lovable hit $100M ARR in 8 months, and Base44 sold to Wix for $80M in cash after only six months.

We dig into why vibe coding is blowing up, and what it really means for builders and businesses. Tune in on 🎥 YouTube or 🎧 Spotify.

This week’s highlights

🎧 Gareth Morgan deepfaked in scam
📚️ Rotorua split on AI campaigning
🎯 Aether raises $3.5M for AI marketing
🚦 AT turns $14.5B fail into AI tool
🎤 Justin Flitter on local AI adoption
🌏 OpenAI hits $1B monthly revenue
🛑 Meta slammed over AI chatbot policy
🏗️ NZ eyes $10B AI data centre boom

Happy reading and listening ✌️

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HEADLINE STORY

📊 NZ Businesses Stuck in AI Pilot Purgatory

📣 Word On The Street: Although we’re making a great start with 87% of Kiwi firms using AI, only 12% have scaled its use properly. Most are just playing with tools.

🔍 Zooming In:

• Nearly half of leaders are still “exploring” AI, proving hype ≠ depth. After two years of daily headlines, we’re still stuck at the starting line.

• Skills and data are the choke points. 32% can’t scale because they lack talent, and 22% say their data is a mess. There’s nothing wrong with the tech, it’s an operating model issue.

• Shadow AI is the real adoption curve. 52% of staff already use unapproved tools. People are dragging AI into work faster than leadership can govern it. The genie’s out of the bottle.

🏘️ Our Take: New Zealand's AI story looks impressive on the surface (the 87% figure). But peel back the numbers and we're mostly buying licences, not building capability. We've built a culture of AI dabbling. Staff are trialling tools, teams are automating admin, leaders are announcing pilots. But real transformation is rare. Only 16% say AI has changed a core service. A recent MIT study found similar patterns globally: 95% of companies see zero return from their AI investments despite billions spent. The cracks are obvious with firms unable to scale because they lack skilled people, their data is too messy to be useful, and policies exist on paper, yet shadow AI runs rampant.

The danger is we normalise this gap. We'll celebrate "using AI" while global peers shift into AI-first operating models, cutting costs, speeding delivery, and creating experiences we can't match. If we keep treating AI as subscriptions, we'll stay stuck at surface-level automation. Meanwhile, competitors who crack capability, governance, and depth will pull ahead.

This isn't just a tech problem. It's a leadership and execution problem. The firms that win will turn experimentation into enterprise muscle: training people, fixing data, standing up governance that works. Until then, we risk becoming a nation of AI tourists, visiting the attractions but never building infrastructure that keeps us in the game.

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🏛️ Government, Policy & Legal

Rotorua candidates split on AI campaigning as election costs rise. Local election hopefuls are divided on using AI for campaign content, with some embracing it for efficiency while others worry about authenticity. 31 candidates across 11 seats show mixed adoption, from complete avoidance to using AI for logos, websites, and video editing.
3-min read.

• Our take: The cost-cutting appeal is obvious, but voters want genuine candidates, not chatbots. Smart money says disclosure becomes standard practice as AI tools proliferate.

Auckland Transport turns NZ$14.5B disaster into AI prevention tool. Auckland's 2,000 landslides from Cyclone Gabrielle became training data for an AI framework predicting future risks across 8,000km of roads. The system analyses 30 factors every 12.5 metres to shift from costly reactive repairs to preventative maintenance.
3-min read.

• Our take: This is disaster capitalism done right, learning from disasters and converting catastrophic losses into predictive assets. When AI can predict failures before they happen, reactive budgeting becomes strategic malpractice across all asset classes. Other councils watching Auckland's cost savings will fast-track similar AI adoption.

💼 Business & Industry

Deepfake scammers target Gareth Morgan in fake investment pitch. AI-generated videos of the retired economist promoting US investments fooled even Morgan himself briefly - "I thought it was me." Scammers used his voice and image on Facebook pages to trick Kiwis into bogus investment schemes worth hundreds of millions.
4-min read.

• Our take: When deepfakes fool their own targets, we've crossed a dangerous threshold. Business leaders need reputation protection strategies before they become unwitting scam frontmen.

Kiwi AI startup Aether raises $3.5M to eliminate marketing busywork. Former TikTok NZ boss Carsten Grueber's platform turns static slide decks into "living assets" that update automatically with business data. Already generating $600K ARR, Aether saves marketers 40% of their time by distilling 150 reports across 12 languages into 10 key slides.
4-min read.

• Our take: This isn't just about PowerPoint efficiency, it's proof that B2B SaaS fortunes await whoever can automate the mundane tasks burning out knowledge workers. When AI liberates human creativity from administrative drudgery, enterprise customers pay premium prices to reclaim both strategic thinking time and professional dignity.

NZ targets $10B AI data centre bonanza as power costs threaten opportunity. AWS commits $8B and Microsoft $1B+ to Kiwi data infrastructure while Maxim Institute warns electricity prices could derail the sector. Thomas Scrimmer argues energy-intensive industry actually reduces consumer power costs by spreading infrastructure costs over more users.
Listen.

• Our take: We're witnessing the physical infrastructure race behind the AI revolution. New Zealand's natural cooling advantage could become as valuable as our renewable energy, if we can solve the electricity supply equation quickly enough.

👨🏻‍🎓 Education & Society

Icehouse launches AI bootcamp as Kiwi SMEs lag behind. New Zealand's leading business training provider partners with futurist Mark Laurence of Ten Past Tomorrow to deliver nationwide AI literacy starting October. One client tripled output in 18 months without burnout using basic tools like ChatGPT costing just $20 monthly.
4-min read.

• Our take: When Icehouse pivots to AI training, it signals SME demand has reached critical mass. The productivity gap between AI adopters and holdouts is becoming impossible to ignore.

🎙️ The AI Corner podcast

This week’s guest is Justin Flitter, the founder of NewZealand.ai.

Justin shares how local business leaders unlock AI’s potential by anchoring adoption in business strategy, cultural heritage, and context. Learn how businesses can shift from ad‑hoc experimentation to sustainable AI adoption, create defensible IP using internal data, and safeguard cultural identity through context‑rich models.

🎧 Listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Subscribe on Spotify and YouTube to be notified of new episodes.

📚️ Levelling Up With AI

Practical AI for Everyday Work

1️⃣ Every week there’s another “must-try” AI tool. But chasing them all creates chaos. Here’s why mastering one tool changes everything.
3-min read.

2️⃣ Most people treat AI like a vending machine: push a button, hope for gold. Here’s Nadia’s tips for treating it like a teammate.
33-secs.

3️⃣ I’ve stopped using Docs and Notion for capturing notes and drafts. Instead, all of my thinking / writing / planning doesn’t happen just with ChatGPT; ChatGPT threads has become my knowledge / notes / plans storage system. Here’s why.
3-min read.

The Speed & Scale of AI

4️⃣ OpenAI just hit $1B a month in revenue (faster than Google or Facebook at the same stage). What happens next will turbo charge their revenue.
1-min read.

5️⃣ At a weekend hackathon, one trend stole the spotlight: “vibe coding”. Think prompts instead of code. Here’s what it means for the average worker, and software builders moving forward.
5-min listen.

6️⃣ Marketing is about to flip. One AI-native marketer plus agents can run hundreds of campaigns a day. This is what “Vibe Marketing” looks like.
3-min read.

7️⃣ If ChatGPT is a library, agents are the librarians. And they’re already reshaping workflows in ways most teams aren’t ready for.
47-sec.

Leading in the AI Era

8️⃣ At 18, Nikolas Hardwick is already building AI companies, hiring globally, and challenging NZ’s old playbooks. His story has lessons for every business leader.
2-min read.

9️⃣ Forget the hype, here’s how New Zealand can actually build tangible value from the AI boom instead of just chasing the bubble.
3-min read.

🌍 The News From Global

Disturbing Meta AI chatbot policies exposed. Company's 200-page internal document allowed chatbots romantic roleplay with kids and racist content generation. US lawmakers demand accountability as backlash grows against the $65bn AI investment.
4-min read.

Google Launches AI Mode in New Zealand Search. AI Mode gives users the ability to ask complex, multi-layered questions and receive instant, AI-powered responses backed by web links. Powered by Gemini 2.5, the feature breaks queries into subtopics, making it ideal for exploratory tasks like trip planning, product comparisons, or health research.
2-min read.

Tech Updates You Should Know

• OpenAI: CEO Sam Altman warned of an AI investment bubble while planning major data centre expansion; expanding product line including a potential Neuralink competitor; launched cheapest plan ChatGPT Go in India ($4.57/month) with higher limits, memory, and local payments; reportedly scraping Google search results via SerpApi for real-time answers; revealed GPT-6 plans with memory of user preferences.

• Google: Introduced AI-powered travel tool for cheaper flights via natural language; rolled out Create tab in Photos with generative AI editing; initiated nuclear project to meet AI energy demand; replacing Google Assistant with Gemini across Nest devices and smart speakers (Pixel 10 launch with on-device Gemini Nano, real-time translation); launching Gemini for Government.

• Anthropic: Upgraded Claude with ability to terminate harmful or abusive chats (“AI welfare”); launched Claude Code for enterprise coding with spend and policy controls, integrated into Claude Team/Enterprise; added nuclear threat classifier with 94.8% accuracy in bomb-making detection; offering Claude to U.S. government for $1/year; in talks to raise $10B at $170B valuation.

• Microsoft: Integrating GPT-5 into Microsoft 365 to generate email drafts in users’ own style; extended NFL partnership with Copilot and Azure AI for game-day analysis.

• Meta: Deleted AI-generated accounts after criticism; restructuring AI divisions for the fourth time in six months (hiring freeze, creation of “TBD Labs” for foundation models, scattering AGI Foundations team); facing lawsuits over chatbots with children including romantic/sensual content (internal approval revealed), now under AG/FTC scrutiny.

• Apple: Pivoting to AI hardware after software delays, developing companion robot and other devices; facing multiple class action lawsuits over failed AI promises.

• DeepSeek: Released V3.1 hybrid model (chat, reasoning, coding, 128k tokens) priced to undercut U.S. firms while rivaling GPT-5.

• xAI: Grok leaked inappropriate system prompts (conspiracist, comedian); leaked 370k user chats via flawed share function, searchable on Google; Grok’s “Imagine” video gen touted by Musk as superior to Google Veo 3; embroiled in data privacy controversy.

📅 AI Events in New Zealand

30 AI events are happening around New Zealand this week. The highest number of events we have seen since the start of Winter.

This week’s featured event:

• LinkedinLocal, Thursday - Auckland: International marketing expert brings behavioural science meets AI strategies to Kiwi leaders and entrepreneurs.

📅  Promote your event with us. Reply to let us know.

💼 AI Roles Around Aotearoa

Picklist of 🌶️ HOT 🌶️ new roles in AI this week.

• Digital Intern, Analytics & AI, Air New Zealand: Auckland

• Business Analyst - AI (12 Month FTC), NZTE: Wellington

• Lead Product Manager, Gen AI, Envato: Remote

💼  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 🤔 …

👋 Mike & Erin