The AI Corner

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Steven Baker, co-founder of Node (formerly Vendor Sage), to explore how he's building an AI-native company that acts as a CIO in your pocket. You'll hear why the CIO role is disappearing in mid-market, how Node's "curiosity loop" diagnoses workflows by connecting to Notion, Slack, CRMs, and HRIS systems, plus Steven's take on why 70% of software implementations fail (and 90% of AI ones), why shadow IT isn't the real problem, and how he's building a transparent, bootstrapped business with customers like Halter, Tracksuit, and Partly.

In this episode we discuss:
• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 01:30 – From Salesforce to Vendor Sage to Node
• 03:00 – What Node actually does
• 06:00 – The curiosity loop and discovery
• 09:00 – Mapping business goals to workflows
• 13:00 – Data privacy and trust concerns
• 18:00 – Avoiding regression to the mean
• 21:00 – Customer base and growth
• 25:00 – Shadow IT, AI sprawl, and source of truth
• 30:00 – Multi-agent architecture under the hood
• 33:00 – Pricing strategy and bootstrapped growth
• 38:00 – Outro & next steps

STEVEN'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-baker-395855128/

MIKE'S LINKEDIN: ⁠https://nz.linkedin.com/in/mikebayly⁠

SUBSCRIBE TO THE AI CORNER NEWSLETTER: ⁠https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Andrew Dentice, Partner at Hudson Gavin Martin, for a grounded look at the legal reality behind AI deployment in New Zealand. Andrew unpacks what AI procurement, governance and IP actually look like day-to-day, why developers building with generative models struggle to give clients a standard IP indemnity, and where agentic tools sit in the risk picture. You'll hear his take on the EU AI Act for NZ exporters, the shift from intelligence work to judgment work inside law firms, and why AI is quietly widening access to legal advice.

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 01:20 – What Hudson Gavin Martin actually does
• 03:20 – Procuring Copilot vs bespoke AI builds
• 05:30 – Why AI IP risk is different
• 08:00 – Who's liable when AI infringes copyright
• 11:30 – Output risk and agentic oversight
• 12:45 – Indemnity gaps in AI builds
• 15:00 – NZ as a regulation price-taker
• 17:50 – EU AI Act and NZ exporters
• 21:00 – Intelligence work vs judgment work
• 27:30 – Juniors, Harvey and AI-native lawyering
• 31:30 – Future of the entry-level lawyer
• 37:40 – AI widening access to legal advice
• 41:30 – Outro & next steps

ANDREW'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-dentice/
MIKE'S LINKEDIN: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/mikebayly
SUBSCRIBE TO THE AI CORNER NEWSLETTER: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Dan Browne, creative agency owner in Napier with 16 years in video production, to explore how AI is reshaping the creative industry from the inside. You'll hear why Dan treats AI as a strategic tool rather than a sales pitch, how node-based workflows are collapsing VFX budgets, and where Nano Banana, Seedream and Kling 3 Omni are delivering real creative gains — from bringing pre-earthquake Napier Pā sites back to life for Ngāti Pārau, to helping tell the stories of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in New Zealand.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 02:00 – Twofold AI: senior leadership coaching vs creative production
• 04:30 – The Ben Lick / Netflix shift and creative identity
• 05:00 – The "handcrafted furniture" analogy for human-led creative
• 07:00 – Jevons Paradox and why the pie grows
• 09:00 – AI slop, LinkedIn's authenticity algorithm and pushback
• 10:30 – The Ngāti Pārau project: pre-1931-earthquake Napier
• 14:00 – Cultural consultation, IP and the decision not to show faces
• 17:00 – Inside the Krea node-based workflow
• 18:30 – Landscape extension, colourisation and Kling start/end frames
• 20:00 – Prompting LLMs to write your prompts
• 22:30 – Model selection: Kling over Runway, Veo, Sora and Luma
• 25:30 – Fireflies to reverse brief: the end-to-end agency workflow
• 27:30 – The drone-through-a-logo shot that used to need a VFX budget
• 29:00 – Why AI never leads the pitch — and why margins go up
• 31:30 – The karaka seed and kete scene with the historian
• 36:30 – The Holocaust documentary and the 102-year-old survivor
• 40:30 – Working around Nano Banana and Seedream guardrails
• 43:00 – Advice for creatives: experiment, stay grounded in craft
• 45:00 – Outro & next steps

DAN'S LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/dhtbrowne/?skipRedirect=true

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Tom Lintern, Head of AI at New Zealand Post, to explore how a data scientist with experience at homes.co.nz and Trade Me is now driving AI transformation across one of New Zealand's oldest and most complex logistics networks. You'll hear why Tom treats governance as a value accelerator rather than a risk barrier, how being a late AI adopter creates strategic advantage through selectivity, and where parcel image classification and process automation are delivering real operational gains. Plus his view on the evolving data science role, why waiting for perfect data is organisational avoidance, and how agent commerce could reshape the logistics industry.

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 01:00 – Why Tom chose NZ Post and the complexity of logistics
• 02:30 – Legacy data systems and the modernisation journey
• 03:15 – AI maturity at a state-owned enterprise
• 06:00 – Governance as value-first, not risk-first
• 08:30 – Avoiding pilot purgatory and proof-of-concept traps
• 10:00 – Building AI literacy and managing expectations
• 13:30 – Productivity AI versus engineered process transformation
• 16:00 – ROI beyond email summarisation
• 19:00 – Parcel image classification and foundation-building
• 22:00 – Building an AI centre of excellence
• 26:15 – The changing role of data scientists
• 31:00 – Why waiting for perfect data is avoidance
• 36:30 – What NZ Post looks like in 10 years
• 41:00 – Agent commerce and machine-readable logistics
• 43:00 – Advice for new heads of AI
• 46:15 – Outro & next steps

TOM'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlintern/

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Fiona Millar, Digital Transformation Manager at Christchurch International Airport, to explore how a 200-person organisation running a campus of 7,000 daily workers is embedding AI across every layer of the business. You'll hear how controlled pilot cohorts led to choosing ChatGPT over Copilot, why a self-taught automation specialist became their biggest Copilot advocate, and the sprint-based model that's delivering use cases team by team. Plus her take on executive AI training mandates, the talent risk of blocking AI tools, and why proving value in high-performing environments is the hardest AI challenge of all.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 00:45 – Christchurch Airport as a small city
• 02:15 – Where the AI journey started
• 03:30 – Avocado AI training cohorts
• 04:45 – ChatGPT vs Copilot pilot results
• 05:15 – Executive team 12-week AI training
• 07:00 – Three layers: productivity, process, strategic
• 08:30 – Copilot Studio and Azure tooling
• 09:00 – Sprint-based AI operating model with Jed
• 11:30 – People & culture use cases first
• 14:00 – Data warehouse chatbot and BI unlock
• 19:15 – Use case prioritisation and governance
• 23:15 – Strategic use cases: LiDAR, CCTV, forecasting
• 28:00 – Change management in the AI era
• 30:00 – Talent risk of blocking AI tools
• 34:00 – CIO Awards and non-traditional tech careers
• 36:00 – Outro & next steps

FIONA'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionamillar/

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Sean Narayan, AI and BI Lead at Bidfood New Zealand, to explore how a background in statistics and data led him to become one of the most hands-on AI builders in New Zealand enterprise. You'll hear how Sean secured exec buy-in at a billion-dollar food business using a concrete roadmap, why he chose to build custom AI over rolling out copilot, and the real-world pilots across sales, procurement, and cash flow that delivered measurable ROI. Plus his framework for build vs buy decisions, governing AI access across 2000 staff, and his honest advice on retooling your career before AI does it for you.

In this episode we discuss:
• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 01:15 – From statistics and Stats NZ to enterprise AI
• 03:30 – Getting exec buy-in at Bidfood
• 07:45 – Early pilots: sales menus, procurement forecasting, cash flow
• 13:00 – Why data insights beat process automation for ROI
• 15:30 – Dealing with legacy systems and siloed data
• 19:30 – Why Sean skipped copilot and built custom instead
• 24:15 – Change management and why humans are the hardest part
• 29:00 – Governing AI access across a large organisation
• 32:15 – Build vs buy: Sean's decision framework
• 35:30 – How to retool your career for the AI era
• 40:45 – Intuition, asking good questions, and Jensen Huang's hiring lens
• 45:45 – NZ vs Asia: what we're not seeing
• 49:30 – Outro & next steps

SEAN'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-narayan-691546140/

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Derrick Edward, co-founder of Harnex AI and AuraScope, to explore his journey from software engineer at Datacom to AI entrepreneur. You'll hear how Derrick and co-founder Misha spotted the GPT-4 moment inside Air New Zealand and decided the pace of change was too fast for enterprise, the cultural challenge of convincing senior engineers that AI makes them more valuable, and why most NZ businesses are invisible in AI-generated search results. Plus, Derrick breaks down how AuraScope approaches AI engine optimisation differently from every other platform, and why agentic development is the unfair advantage nobody's talking about.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 02:00 – From DevOps engineer to AI founder
• 05:30 – Why enterprise couldn't keep up with AI
• 08:00 – The evolution of AI coding tools
• 11:30 – Convincing engineers AI makes them better
• 18:00 – What is AEO and why does it matter
• 28:00 – Why you can't actually rank in ChatGPT
• 35:00 – How AuraScope's recommendation engine works
• 41:00 – Why small NZ brands are getting disintermediated
• 43:00 – Agency-first go-to-market strategy
• 48:00 – Should you build a startup in the AI era?
• 51:00 – Outro & next steps

DERRICK'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrick-edward/

SUBSCRIBE TO STAY AHEAD:NZ AI News: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Habib Baluwala, AI Transformation Lead at Fonterra and former GM of AI and Data Foundations at One New Zealand, to explore what 15 years of enterprise AI leadership across telco, government, and dairy really looks like. You'll hear why most organisations get governance wrong, how Habib thinks about mapping processes before introducing AI, what New Zealand businesses can learn from more competitive markets, plus his original Human Delta framework — a new way to measure the direction, judgement, and relational trust that humans still bring to AI-assisted work.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 00:59 – Career journey: biomedical engineer to AI exec
• 04:16 – Comparing Spark, One NZ, and Fonterra's AI maturity
• 06:44 – Why NZ businesses lack competitive urgency for AI
• 11:11 – How enterprise organisations approach responsible AI
• 13:58 – Advising mid-market businesses on responsible first steps
• 15:52 – Building trust with executives and the C-suite
• 26:13 – Designing governance that feels like a service
• 30:56 – Process mapping before introducing AI workflows
• 35:15 – Shadow AI: real risks and how to manage them
• 42:18 – The cognitive cost of AI-driven scale
• 52:25 – The Human Delta framework explained
• 01:00:30 – Outro & next steps

HABIB'S LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/habibbaluwala/

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS TO STAY AHEAD:: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly as he dives into Trade Me Property's launch as New Zealand's first ChatGPT app, and unpacks what this distribution shift means for every business. Mike walks through the live experience, exploring how property listings show up mid-conversation, why content written for humans falls short when AI agents are doing the shopping, and how structured data becomes your competitive moat. Plus, the parallels to the early smartphone app store era, what OpenAI's UX guidance tells us about building these experiences, and why early movers in this space could capture habits that are hard to break.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & the ChatGPT apps shift
• 01:00 – App store parallels to smartphone era
• 02:00 – Distribution moving from websites to chat
• 03:00 – Live demo of Trade Me Property app
• 05:00 – Why listings must be agent-readable
• 07:00 – Context and personalisation as competitive edge
• 09:00 – Agentic commerce in real time
• 11:00 – Can the app invoke itself mid-conversation?
• 14:00 – Data privacy and advertising concerns
• 16:00 – Businesses losing control of the interface
• 19:00 – Design shifts and experience fragmentation
• 20:00 – OpenAI's UX rules and unit of value
• 24:00 – Early mover advantage and low barriers
• 26:00 – Outro & next steps

MIKE'S LINKEDIN:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebayly/

SUBSCRIBE TO STAY AHEAD:NZ AI News: https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Toby Cox, founder of Geodde, to explore how he went from leading 70 engineers at Paloma to building an entire B2B product solo using AI coding agents. You'll hear why AI search is creating a powerful new distribution channel for niche players, how Geodde helps businesses rank in ChatGPT and Google AI summaries, and Toby's approach to shipping fast with Ruby on Rails and Claude Code. Plus his take on the difference between vibe coding and agentic engineering, why product market fit hasn't changed, and how founders should stay lean as AI capabilities accelerate.

In this episode we discuss:

• 00:00 – Intro & guest bio
• 01:15 – What Geodde does and the problem it solves
• 03:00 – GEO vs SEO in plain terms
• 05:15 – How AI search creates new opportunities
• 07:30 – Observability and share of voice challenges
• 08:00 – Why Toby chose GEO as a business
• 09:00 – How the product works end to end
• 12:15 – Why Webflow and B2B SaaS specifically
• 14:45 – Using Geodde to grow Geodde
• 17:00 – Precision marketing in the AI era
• 18:00 – Tech stack and building with Claude Code
• 21:00 – Vibe coding vs agentic engineering
• 23:00 – The future pipeline for developers
• 27:00 – Advice for new founders in the AI age
• 32:45 – Outro & next steps

TOBY'S LINKEDIN:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobycox/

SUBSCRIBE TO NZ'S AI NEWS TO STAY AHEAD:

https://theaicorner.co.nz/subscribe