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Explore our summit programme filled with inspiring keynote presentations, engaging panel discussions, and plenty of networking opportunities in the company of AI leaders from Aotearoa and around the world.
8:30 – Registration Opens
9:00 – Mihi Whakatau
9:15 – Welcome from the AI Forum New Zealand
9:30 – Conversation | What is the role of AI in Aotearoa going forward?
9:50 – Opening Keynote | Opportunities for AI infrastructure and use in Aotearoa
Details to be announced
10:20 – Panel Discussion | Sovereign Capability in the AI Era: Building the Foundations for New Zealand’s Digital Future
New Zealand is at a pivotal moment in determining how AI capability is built, accessed, and governed. This panel will explore the infrastructure, investment, and strategic choices that will shape the country’s long-term digital independence and resilience.
Panellists to be announced
10:50 – Morning Tea Break
11:20 – Keynote
Peter Lucas Jones | Chief Executive Officer, Te Hiku Media
Details to be confirmed
11:50 – Human Rights Commission Paper on AI
Dr Stephen Rainbow | Human Rights Commissioner
12:00 – Panel discussion: Earning Trust in the Age of AI – Building Social Licence for Innovation
Moderator: Dr Mahsa McCauley | Chair of AI Forum and UNESCO NZ Commissioner
Dr Stephen Rainbow | Human Rights Commissioner
Further panellists to be announced
12:50 – Lunch Break
13:40 – Roundtable Discussions
Details to be announced
14:30 – Panel Discussion: From Pilot to Production: Scaling AI for Real-World Impact
Many organisations have moved beyond experimenting with AI and are now focused on delivering measurable outcomes. This panel brings together leaders who are navigating the challenges of implementation, exploring how to translate strategy into action, scale successful initiatives, and embed AI into everyday operations in a way that is practical, responsible, and sustainable.
Panellists to be announced
15:10 – Quickfires: AI in Practice: Stories from the Coalface
Details to be announced
15:30 – Afternoon Tea Break
16:00 – Aotearoa AI Hackathon Festival Segment
The top four teams from the Aotearoa AI Hackathon Festival will take the stage to pitch their solutions live. Each team will share how their idea tackles a real world challenge through AI, before the Summit audience votes to decide the overall winner.
16:30 – Beyond Generative AI: The Technologies That Will Define the Next Decade
As organisations begin to realise value from generative AI, the next wave of innovation is already emerging. From agentic AI and robotics to quantum computing and autonomous systems, this session explores the technologies poised to reshape industries, economies, and society—and what New Zealand leaders should be doing today to prepare for tomorrow.
Format to be announced
17:00 – Day one closing remarks
17:15 – Networking Drinks
9:00- Opening of day 2
9:10 – Opening Keynote | Experimentation to integration: Uncovering the AI Productivity Report Findings
Details to be announced
9:50 – Panel Discussion | Augmenting Human Potential – AI, Skills and the Future of Work
As organisations grapple with skills shortages, workforce constraints, and rising productivity expectations, AI presents an opportunity to enhance human capability rather than replace it. This panel will explore how businesses, governments, and educators are leveraging AI to empower their people, unlock new ways of working, and build a workforce equipped for an increasingly AI-enabled future.
Panellists to be announced
10:30 – Morning tea
11:00 – Panel Discussion: The Productivity Dividend – Turning AI Efficiency into Economic Growth
Panellists to be confirmed
11:40 – Keynote | The AI Opportunity: Building New Zealand’s Next Export Economy
Artificial intelligence is creating new opportunities for countries to generate value, compete globally, and develop entirely new industries. This presentation explores how New Zealand can move beyond being a consumer of AI technologies to becoming a creator of AI-enabled products, services, and intellectual property, unlocking new pathways for economic growth, productivity, and international competitiveness
Speaker details to be announced
12:10 – Aotearoa AI Awards Finalists Announcement
12:40 – Networking Lunch
Choose the workshop option that works for you. From one of our two workshops designed for senior leaders presented by Adobe and Zoho, or our hands-on workshop presented by academyEX there’s something for everyone.
Please note: we will reach out confirming your selection a few weeks prior to the summit.
13:15 – Senior Leadership Workshop | The Visibility Imperative: How to Get Found in an AI-First World presented by Adobe
Generative AI is changing how people find, evaluate and engage with information. As audiences increasingly rely on AI-powered tools for search, recommendations and decision-making support, traditional approaches to visibility and engagement are shifting.
Join our experts from Adobe in a session designed specifically for senior leaders. This workshop will cover:
what has changed, why it matters, and how your organisation can adapt.
practical guidance on how new AI tools are reshaping audience behaviour, influence and trust.
how to expand your organisation’s audience reach, improve discoverability, strengthen credibility, and optimise content and communications for an AI-mediated environment.
how to guide strategy, investment and capability-building in this new world.
Designed for decision-makers, the workshop will equip leaders with the insights needed to guide teams, shape priorities, and ask the right questions.
13:15 – Senior Leadership Workshop | How do we build trusted, integrated AI agents across the organisation? presented by Zoho
Successful AI adoption starts with identifying meaningful organisational problems, then solving them in ways that are secure, governed, measurable, and aligned to existing systems. Fragmented tools, inconsistent data, unclear ownership, and weak access controls can prevent promising pilots from becoming trusted operational capability.
Join experts from Zoho for a practical executive workshop designed for senior business and government leaders. The session will show how to identify high-value opportunities for agentic AI, assess readiness, and build connected AI-enabled workflows across marketing, customer relationship management, finance, human resources, IT, and collaboration platforms.
Participants will learn how to:
This workshop is designed for senior leaders, the key message is not simply that agents can be built quickly; it is that they must be built around real organisational problems, trusted data, clear governance, and measurable outcomes.
13:15 – academyEX Workshop
Details to be confirmed
16:15 – Summit Closes