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AI in Business: Key Takeaways and What They Mean for Kiwi Organisations
Last month’s Business North Harbour AI in Business event brought together more than 160 NZ business owners, managers, and innovators to talk openly about where AI is heading and how organisations can use it in a way that actually makes sense. Voyager was proud to be part of the conversation, with our Chief Revenue Officer, Angela Hunter, joining a panel of impressive speakers including:
Justin Flitter (Founder, NewZealand.AI)
Asa Cox (Founder & CEO, Arcanum AI)
Greg Cross (Co-Founder/Coach, Eighty20.AI)
Dave Wilson (CEO, IT360)
Matt Ensor (Gen AI Leader, Kia Ora AI)
Rob Hayden (Global Manager – AI Innovation, Thryv)
We also gave attendees a sneak peek at something we’ve been working on behind the scenes: Voyager’s Voice AI Agents, launching in early 2026.
In true Voyager fashion, here’s our take on the event’s biggest themes - and what they mean for Kiwi businesses as AI continues to reshape how we work.
Businesses aren’t asking “What is AI?” anymore, they’re asking “How do we use it?”
There’s been a serious shift in the last 12–18 months. Every expert on stage made it clear: AI isn’t a phase. It’s already changing how teams operate, how customers interact, and how businesses are discovered online.
But instead of fear, the conversation has swung heavily toward hype. There’s pressure to adopt AI, endless tools, and a lot of noise, yet very little guidance on how to start, especially for NZ businesses. (Angela goes into more detail about this and her own findings in her thought leadership piece here.)
Angela’s presentation cut through that confusion with a much-needed practical lens: How can AI help us run more efficiently while keeping customer experience and trust at the centre?
Many businesses at the event saw the opportunity but were overwhelmed by the pace and volume of AI chatter. Angela encouraged leaders to begin with the tasks their teams don’t enjoy, the repetitive admin loops and bottlenecks that distract people from genuine, human customer engagement. Dedicate an hour a week to automating these admin tasks with AI to start seeing a difference before signing up with any flashy, expensive AI tool.
If you want AI to make a difference, culture comes first
You can buy tools, but you can’t buy mindset. One of the strongest messages from the event was that successful AI adoption relies more on culture than technology.
The organisations that benefit most from AI will be the ones that:
- build their “AI muscle” early
- allow bottom-up adoption
- encourage experimentation without fear
- share learnings openly - wins and failures
Policy still matters, especially around data, but over-controlled environments risk sterilising innovation and excitement for the possibilities with AI. Teams need the freedom to explore, test, and try again.
We’ve seen this first-hand at Voyager: when curiosity is part of your culture, AI becomes a natural extension of how you work and the impact is real.
You can’t apply AI effectively if you don’t understand your business deeply
One of the biggest traps businesses fall into is jumping straight to a tool before understanding the problem. The panel reinforced a simple but essential framework:
Know your workflows. Know your customer journeys. Know your pain points. Then introduce AI where it removes friction.
This ensures AI improves the experience instead of adding another layer to manage and more complexity. It’s also critical to feed AI with the right data and when you understand your business deeply is when you have this data quality. AI is only as good as the information (and the people) driving it. Without structure and accuracy, even the best tools won’t deliver meaningful results.
And as businesses bring more automation into their operations, one thing becomes more important than ever: knowing which stages of your customer journey require a human touch. That’s where real trust is built.
The exclusive first look at Voyager’s Voice AI Agents
We were excited to share an early demo of our Voice AI Agents - technology designed to help businesses manage high volumes of calls, after-hours enquiries, and routine questions, all while ensuring humans stay at the centre where it counts.
Our goal is not to replace customer service. Far from it. We’re building agents that:
- sound natural and conversational
- handle everyday enquiries consistently
- escalate to a person when empathy or nuance is needed
- give your team time back to focus on higher-value work
- adapt to your business rather than forcing rigid scripts
The reaction in the room confirmed what we’ve known for a while: businesses want balance. They want efficiency without sacrificing the personal experience their customers expect.
We’re on track for a launch in early 2026, and we’re excited to share more soon.
Want to be the first to know when it launches? Register for the Voyager Innovation waitlist.
