What would it mean for your team to be named Aotearoa’s best AI implementors in front of the country’s most influential AI leaders, businesses, and decision-makers? This is a question worth asking yourself, and if you want an answer, you should keep reading.

You may notice that the teams that win these awards are not always the ones with the biggest budget or the most advanced technology. They are the ones who do the work, assess the result, and can tell the story. We are going to share three questions we ask every AI project we deliver and what a strong answer looks like.

The Aotearoa AI Awards exist to discover and celebrate those who perform AI excellence; it’s where your story gets told. Entries close 23 July 2026, and we would love to see more teams like yours raising their hands for this celebration. Enlighten Designs are back as a sponsor of the Best Implementation of AI in Aotearoa Award. We really like this category as it honours AI that influenced a business positively, helping with business productivity and results rather than just an impressive technical solution.

In addition, these finalists get the opportunity to have their work amplified at the AI Summit in Wellington on 8-9 September, in front of an audience who actively influence AI in Aotearoa. Winners are then celebrated on 18 November at the prestigious NZ AI Awards event in Auckland.

The real question is: does your project have what it takes? Before crafting your submission, ask yourself three questions:

• Can you identify a number that did not exist before?
• Does it change how people work?
• Did you measure it, or are you assuming it?

To help you think about this for your own submission, here is what we think strong answers look like.

Can you identify a number that didn’t exist before?

When we rebuilt Unison’s outage tool, fault calls dropped 20%, and 8000 users were on the platform within six months. This is a good example of being able to put a quantified number into an award submission.

Does it change how people work?

Last year’s winner Kiwa Digital is a great benchmark to show how an award submission can change how people work. Their AI-fueled platforms empower Te Reo Māori and Pasifika languages at scale, not a resting proof of concept. It is actively running daily operations of measurable cultural impact in Aotearoa. That’s your ‘how’.

Did you measure it or are you assuming it?

Most teams answer this question with a gut feeling, but that’s where strong submissions fall. We learnt this firsthand with our Principal Technologist, Verne Roberts. He ran a structured study across our teams on AI-driven development, and the data told a different story to how developers felt; the data humbled us. Build your submission around what you can prove, not what you assume.

And so, the next time someone asks you, “What would it mean to be named New Zealand’s best AI implementors in front of the country’s most influential AI leaders?” We hope your answer is that you can tell them this happened to you.

If you want to learn more about the AI Awards, check out our blog to dig a little deeper into the submission process or have a skim through what to expect at the AI Summit blog.

Enlighten Designs is the sponsor of the Best Implementation of AI in Aotearoa Award at the Aotearoa Awards 2026.