The adoption of AI tools in New Zealand businesses has accelerated significantly in the past 12 to 18 months. Tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and various workflow automation platforms are being used to speed up processes, improve decision-making, and free up staff time.
That’s largely a positive development. But there’s a step many businesses are skipping — one that has meaningful legal and reputational implications.

Something I see consistently: business owners who are capable, hardworking, and genuinely good at what they do — but stuck.
Not because they lack ability. Not because the opportunity isn’t there. But because their current circumstances have narrowed their perspective.

I want to be upfront about something: for a while, my approach to AI was essentially to ignore it.
My reasoning, which felt logical at the time: the technology is changing so fast that investing time in learning any particular tool is almost pointless. By the time you’ve got comfortable with it, something else has emerged. So why bother?
I’ve had to revise that position.

There’s a distinction I’ve been thinking about more carefully recently, and I think it’s one of the most important things a business owner can get clear on.
The distinction between being busy — and being leveraged.
Busy is easy to achieve. Most business owners have more than enough to fill their time. The inboxes, the client calls, the operational decisions, the staff questions. It’s not hard to stay occupied.

Values can sound like fluffy territory for a business owner. Mission statements on walls. Workshop outputs that get filed away and forgotten.

I used to think the same. When the team is small, you don’t need much of a framework – everyone’s in the same room, culture is implicit, and alignment happens naturally.

If I’m being direct: most business owners are the biggest risk in their own business.

Not because they’re doing anything wrong. But because everything runs through them.