Blog
Expert AI insights and practical technology guidance for New Zealand businesses.
Before you put AI on top of your business, make your information findable, governed and well described. How a Kiwi financial services firm got the basics right and turned AI into real, everyday wins.
NZ organisations are using AI faster than they’re building the structure around it. First-party 2026 Cairn Compass data, the three adoption traps, and a practical six-step guide to adopting AI in a New Zealand organisation.
The AI Forum's latest Blueprint calls it high-use, low-trust: New Zealanders use AI constantly and believe in it less than almost anyone. I sat down with Sanel Tomlinson, who's spent thirty years getting people to trust things they can't check for themselves, to work out how trust in AI actually get
The tools are not the hard part anymore. The work around them is. Start there, and the "which AI?" question quietly answers itself down the track.
Four numbers in the Blueprint every NZ business owner should read twice: 2.7% of our workforce are AI practitioners with embedded workflows. 97% are using AI superficially or not at all. 79% of employers don't know how to train their team. 90% expect to be using AI by 2028. 📡 The gap between "we us
"People don't really put the truth on the internet. When you really discover the useful insights is when you actually have conversations with the manager who was implementing that strategy or doing that thing. You'll hear all about the challenges that were faced, what really happened behind the scen
At the start of the morning one manager told me he doesn't do AI. Not interested. By midday he'd downloaded ChatGPT and was excited to give it a go. What 100 community services managers taught me about putting people before technology in an AI workshop.
A conversation with Scott Arrol about what it really takes to build trust and collaboration across a complex health ecosystem. Scott's career spans more than two decades across health, disability, community services, and technology. He moved from business ownership into health leadership at Radius H
AI adoption in Aotearoa has moved fast. By 2025, over 80% of New Zealand organisations reported using AI in some form. That sounds impressive until you look closer. Among businesses with fewer than 200 employees, nearly half have no plans to adopt AI at all. And of those that have started, many are
Cairn Compass is a free AI maturity assessment built specifically for New Zealand organisations. 40 questions, about 15 minutes, and you get a clear picture of where you stand across eight dimensions: strategy, leadership, data, technology, people, process, culture, and governance.
New Zealand's AI journey is not primarily a technology story. It is a maturity story, and an increasingly urgent one. The tools are racing ahead. Most organisations are not. Across hundreds of conversations with individuals and businesses throughout the country, and informed by recent research into
An authentic exploration of human leadership and communication in a world awash with AI-generated content. Gabrielle Dolan ("Ral") brings decades of global experience in strategic storytelling to challenge how leaders and teams stay real, build trust, and use new technology to enhance, not erode the
The Cairn brings you real conversations with people navigating real challenges. From digital transformation in tertiary education to AI strategy to digital health. We sit down with those steering their industries forward. Each episode explores how leaders think about the future, how AI and technol
Curious about how artificial intelligence is changing the way we work? In our recent webinar, “AI is Transforming the Workplace – Are You Ready?”, Ben had a conversation with HR and Leadership expert Shaun Sheldrake to explore the opportunity that AI presents for HR, training, and leadership in Ne
Apple's preparing to launch a completely rebuilt Siri in spring 2026 with iOS 26.4, and the technology powering it represents a fascinating shift in how the company approaches artificial intelligence.
If you haven't checked your LinkedIn settings lately, there's something important you should know. LinkedIn has started using member data to train AI models for itself and Microsoft.
Three awesome sessions complete at Business South today. I worked with 24 people over the day with everyone taking away some valuable [Microsoft Copilot](https://www.linkedin.com/company/microso
When I was twelve, a teacher shared a story I've never forgotten. At the time, I was likely misbehaving, perhaps for the second or third time. He pulled me aside and said: "Every time you take a mis-step, you dull your blade. And a dull blade becomes increasingly hard to sharpen."
Discover how AI is reshaping the workplace. Learn about the real impacts of AI on jobs, recruitment, and HR, and get tips on how to safely adopt new technologies. The fantastic discussion covers leadership, culture, and the skills needed to thrive alongside AI—helping you and your organisation sta
Microsoft Copilot App Builder and Workflows are now available, turning natural language conversations into working apps, automated workflows, and intelligent agents. No coding. No database setup. Just describe what you need.
It’s been another busy week in the world of Microsoft Copilot, with several exciting updates rolling out that are set to make your workday smoother and more connected than ever.
What started as a "quick fix" became a several-hour project over months, multiple trips, and a small collection of unused plumbing parts. The lesson? Sometimes expertise trumps enthusiasm.
The era of "vibe working" has officially begun. Excel mastery is no longer reserved for formula experts. It's now accessible to everyone.
It all begins with an idea.
Faces in the rocky landscape and voices in the scrub were the subtle and somewhat strangely welcome hallucinations that greeted me as I ran the last few kilometres toward the Northburn 100 mile race finish line.