NZ Tech

TL;DR AI is becoming the front door to software: instead of clicking, you ask. Agents (like those built on Model Context Protocol) go further, skipping native UIs to act on your behalf. But not everything should be replaced: old UIs remain best for precision, safety, and learning. For Kiwi companies (Trade Me, Xero, One NZ), the challenge is balancing AI’s magic with trust, transparency, and compliance. What was once only achievable in AWS a decade ago is now democratised. 1. Language as the new input Once, we memorised commands. Then we clicked icons. Now, increasingly, we just talk. ...

Most companies don’t have an AI problem. They have a data problem they are trying to solve with AI. AI feels like progress. It looks fast. It looks smart. But when the data behind it is messy, things break in quiet ways. There is a twist though. AI can also help fix the data. But only if the basics are already in place. What data foundation really means Data foundation sounds complex. It is not. ...

Most companies don’t know what data they have. Even fewer know what data they need next. Data is everywhere. In tools, in spreadsheets, in systems that don’t talk to each other. People work around it. They guess. They rebuild things. The problem is not lack of data. The problem is not seeing it clearly. The real gap Data exists in most organisations. But it is hard to find and harder to trust. ...