The AI Corner

Join host Mike Bayly and guests Julia Pahina, CEO and co-founder of Fibre Fale, and Eteroa Lafaele, co-founder and head of AI and culture, to explore how they left global and corporate tech paths to build a Pacific-led technology organisation. They unpack why Pacific participation in tech is still so low, how AI could widen existing inequalities, why trusted community spaces matter, plus their wor...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Loren Thomas, Head of People Strategy and Experience at Trade Me, to explore how one of New Zealand's most iconic tech companies is navigating AI transformation from the inside. Loren shares how she took the initiative to drive AI adoption without formal authority, why foundational training was the real turning point, and how Trade Me's "blast radius&quo...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Nyssa Waters, founder of possibl.ai, to explore how a consulting firm of builders and engineers grew across New Zealand, Australia and beyond into the Gulf, the US and India. You'll hear why Nyssa argues agile is dead, how she forecasts the "black art" of token spend after months north of fifty grand, and why getting your scaffolding right beats buildin...

Join host Mike Bayly and returning guest Justin Flitter, founder and Chief AI Officer of NewZealand. AI, to unpack why most Kiwi businesses are still using AI as a glorified Google search and how to shift from scattered shadow adoption to trusted, scalable systems. You'll hear Justin's view on the literacy and confidence gap, how an engineering firm cut a three-hour reporting task to ninet...

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 soft...

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 h...

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 —...

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...

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...

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 p...

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 valuab...

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 busines...

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 moa...

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 o...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Adam Holt, Co-founder of thecolab.ai & po2order, to explore how Adam's building autonomous AI agent teams that work 24/7, what OpenClaw (formerly ClaudeBot/MoltBot) can actually do, and why prompt injection is the biggest security risk most people ignore. You'll hear Adam's journey from developer to AI-first entrepreneur, how he contributes to the Ope...

Join hosts Mike and Erin Bayly for an anniversary episode reflecting on how The AI Corner went from an idea when living in a campervan in South American holiday to New Zealand's most-read AI newsletter. You'll hear how they grew from zero to 5,800+ subscribers in twelve months, the ACP (Audience-Community-Product) framework that guided their strategy, and why Claude Code became a tipping p...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Damon Kelly, Founder and CEO of Enlighten Designs, to explore 26 years of building with AI—from cognitive science studies to today's generative revolution. You'll hear how Damon slashed a 290-hour recruitment process to just 10 hours using AI agents, why retrieval augmented generation isn't just bigger memory, and his take on conversational commerce resha...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Ben Reid, technology futurist and founder of Memia, to explore how exponential technology is reshaping New Zealand's future. You'll hear Ben's journey from philosophy student to founding executive director of the AI Forum NZ, his thesis on why Western nations have surrendered sovereignty to hyperscale cloud providers, and his prediction of an imminent AI...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Hannah Hardy-Jones, co-founder of Contented and previous founder of mental health app The Kite Program, to explore how she moved from mental health tech into AI, what voice-powered conversation intelligence looks like across wealth management and enterprise, and why solving actual problems beats dabbling with recipes. You'll hear about the 70 coffee challenge tha...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Dave Howden, CEO and co-founder of Superhuman AI with over two decades in emerging tech, to explore how he moved from cloud migrations to industrial AI applications, what automation looks like across regulated sectors, and why the cost of doing nothing falls hardest on employees. You'll hear Dave's take on knowledge work heading to zero cost, the fiduciary te...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Bindi Norwell, group CEO of ProCare and recent winner of the New Zealand Leadership Award for Innovation, to explore how she's leading New Zealand's largest primary care network through AI-driven transformation. You'll hear how Bindi moved from real estate to healthcare, why she started internal before going external with AI adoption, plus her approach to...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Dr Guy Bate, thematic lead for artificial intelligence at the University of Auckland Business School, to explore how he moved from health tech consulting into education and why he sees AI as a mirror that reveals our assumptions, not just a tool for automation. You'll hear Guy's approach to auto-fabrication, how he uses custom GPTs to simulate board members a...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Asa Cox, founder and CEO of Arcanum AI, to explore his journey from pharmaceutical licensing to becoming New Zealand's self-described "grandfather of AI." Hear how Asa pivoted from enterprise projects with TransPower and NZ Police to building Numa, a platform specifically designed for SMBs that legacy tech providers overlooked. You'll discover why s...

Welcome to a new segment of Mike’s Musings. Focused breakdowns on the ideas shaping the future of AI, commerce and work. This week's topic: Agentic commerce is not a buzzword. It is what happens when AI agents start researching, comparing, negotiating and buying on our behalf, across multiple sites, in a single invisible transaction. In this video I break down: 00:00 Intro and why agentic comm...

Join host Mike Bayly and guest Cowan Henderson, co‑founder of Avocado AI, as we unpack how he’s helping New Zealand businesses move beyond AI hype into real‑world adoption. Cowan draws on his decade‑plus experience in digital growth and change management to show why AI works only when people lead it, not just tools. In this episode we discuss: • 00:00 – Intro & guest bio• 00:29 – What drew Cow...