iStart Limited

08/10/2026

Local businesses may be chasing the wrong prize with agentic AI. University of Auckland professor Ilan Oshri says companies dependent on supply chains should be deploying AI agents to reduce risk, not just improve efficiency. In what he calls a ‘big surprises era’, AI's biggest value may be spotting disruptions before they hit the bottom line.

Risk mitigation, not efficiency, the killer app…

08/10/2026

Your next interaction with government could be through an AI agent, with the ATO and Services Australia exploring how personal agents could manage tax and service interactions. Identity, accountability and trust, however, remain critical hurdles.

Identity hurdles remain before agent-to-agent tax is reality…

01/10/2026

Death by Power BI? After 3,064 reports Mitre 10 has fought back, turning to AI agents to give users answers instead of more dashboard.

Retailer swaps report sprawl without more dashboards…

01/10/2026

GST was the easy part. Now Australia is targeting the profits behind cloud, SaaS and software sales, and not everyone is happy about it. Meanwhile, New Zealand is also consulting, but looking to a softer approach.https://istart.com.au/news-items/australia-declares-war-on-software-tax-loopholes-as-nz-takes-it-softly/

01/10/2026

Building AI that’s worse than ChatGPT? For Suncorp’s Jonathan Rutter enterprise AI doesn’t need to be clever, it needs to be accurate. Meanwhile AGL is using AI to stop security teams becoming a bottleneck. The lesson from both organisations: Start with a business problem, not a model.

Trust and governance trump flashy AI experiences…

22/09/2026

From mobs to micro-data. Kiwi farmers are using AI to unlock hidden insights, make faster decisions and uncover value buried in decades of farm information.

16/09/2026

AI isn’t just answering questions anymore. A/NZ organisations are increasingly connecting AI to business systems and workflows, signalling a move from experimentation to automation, with new opportunities and risks.

Agents gain access to business - and data…

16/09/2026

How do you know an AI project is successful? For HEB Construction, it’s not just about financial returns or time savings. It’s about controlling token costs, measuring ROI before deployment, and building repeatable frameworks that can be reused across future initiatives as HEB's Annette Rangi tells us.

Token shocks, data work, getting ROI and operationalising AI….

10/09/2026

Auckland's AI ambitions are getting bigger. AT's homegrown computer vision platform, Theia, could one day power a wider range of council services, with plans for multimodal AI and even the possibility of licensing the technology to help offset costs for ratepayers.

Homegrown AI platform could cut council costs and rates…

09/09/2026

New Zealanders are enthusiastic adopters of genAI. So why are SMEs at risk of being left behind? TechNZ warns a growing capability gap could create a two-speed economy

AI divide risk as small firms fall behind…