Understand it. Use it. Grow with it.
Proudly supported by IT360 and Spark Business Hub Auckland North
14 November 2025 | North Harbour Stadium
Guest experts:
Justin Flitter, Founder of NewZealand.AI
Asa Cox, Founder and CEO, Arcanum AI
Greg Cross, Co-Founder, Coach, and Non-Exec Director, Eighty20.AI
Angela Hunter, Chief Customer and Revenue Officer, Voyager Internet
Dave Wilson, CEO, IT360
Matt Ensor, Gen AI Leader, Kia Ora AI
Rob Hayden, Global Manager – AI Innovation, Thryv
Artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly evolved from a provocative but abstract headline to practical questions for organisations of every size: “What does this mean for our business?” How do we use it to our advantage?” And, perhaps most importantly: “Where should we start?
Business North Harbour’s first AI conference brought together more than 160 local business owners, managers, and employees. Through keynote presentations, practical demonstrations, a panel Q&A, and ideas enthusiastically exchanged around the tables, these attendees gained invaluable insights directly relevant to their own operations.
Over the course of the afternoon, there were several key messages and talking points:
- The conversation about AI is no longer driven by fear of automation or job loss, but more towards how it can help any business work more intelligently.
- Freeing up people’s time away from repetitive, “unloved” tasks means they can focus more on what they do best – quite often, focused on customer relationships.
- There’s a significant gap between people’s desire to use AI to improve their productivity and businesses offering the appropriate training and support.
- Culture eats technology for breakfast: your people have to be empowered to use it and to share their learnings (including the fails!)
- You need to know your business inside-out before you can apply the AI tools that will make a genuine impact.
- Businesses need to rethink how they present themselves, with bots increasingly being “the customer”.
- Without accurate, meaningful customer data, AI cannot tailor experiences, predict trends or identify new opportunities.
- Data privacy and security remain major concerns for both businesses and their customers. Commonsense staff guidelines and aligning with partners and suppliers who share similar core values, therefore, becomes all the more important.
The invited experts were genuinely optimistic about what could unfold in the next 12-24 months. There were shared predictions of a more productive, innovative, customer-centric, and creative workforce. However, a word of caution – these opportunities will only be accessible to organisations that begin building capability now. As Justin Flitter asked: “How are you going to be relevant to your customers and future employees if you’re not starting to build your AI muscle today?”
You can read far more about this exciting and thought-provoking event in the November (Summer) issue of FYI – due to be uploaded on or before 24 November.
