AI in June

Upcoming AI webinars and workshops

Looking to build your AI capability? Dive into some strong learning opportunities coming up over the next few months.

Engineering New Zealand webinars and training

Our July webinar From Quick Wins to Bigger Projects: AI Inside a New Zealand Surveying and Engineering Firm will look at how AI is being used in practice inside a New Zealand business. This should be especially valuable for engineers past the “what is AI?” stage who are now asking how to apply it in a practical, controlled and worthwhile way.

Coming up in August we have our fourth Panel Q&A webinar exploring Preparing for an AI Enabled Future: How Universities Are Responding to Rapid Technological Change. On the panel will be five Canterbury University lecturers discussing how they are responding to the opportunities and challenges that AI brings.

Exploring the Power of Generative AI continues to be a strong hands-on option for people who want to build confidence with tools across text, image and video. It’s a full-day workshop designed to help participants understand what today’s tools can do, where they’re helpful and what to watch out for in professional use. Upcoming dates are Thursday 6 August in Auckland, Tuesday 25 August in Central Otago Queenstown and Tuesday 15 September in Canterbury.

AI Forum NZ webinars and case studies

The AI Forum’s AEC Working Group continues to produce practical material for people working in engineering and the built environment.

An AI Forum article recaps the most-attended AI in AEC webinar so far, with practical takeaways on responsible AI, risk, compliance, Māori data governance and the guardrails organisations need before AI becomes business as usual Guardrails at Speed: AI Governance, Risk and Compliance in the AEC Sector

A case study on AI-Automated Civil Engineering Design is worth a look if you’re interested in how AI can support design workflows in a more structured and repeatable way. Examples like this help move the conversation from possibility to practical application.

A piece on How to Create a Claude Skill to Answer RFPs is also a helpful reminder that AI is increasingly about tailored workflows, not just one-off prompts. For firms dealing with repeated tasks, bids and internal knowledge, this kind of example shows where the next wave of value may sit.

The AI Forum is seeking feedback on how AI is being used across the architecture, engineering and construction sector. This short AI in AC survey takes around five minutes to complete and will help build a clearer picture of current attitudes, adoption and emerging issues in practice. Responses can be anonymous and will help inform future industry insights, Knowledge Hub content and research.

Engineering and Aotearoa related AI developments

This month’s New Zealand and engineering-related picks all point in a similar direction: AI is becoming more embedded in practical workflows, not just used as a general-purpose assistant.

Datagrid’s planned AI data centre near Invercargill has just received full resource consent, putting it on track to become New Zealand’s second-largest electricity user after the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. For engineers, it’s a valuable case study in how data centre development is reshaping conversations about grid capacity, consenting and regional infrastructure investment.

There’s also a strong local example of AI being applied to a genuinely technical engineering problem: a New Zealand initiative using AI models to analyse geotechnical data such as soil composition, land stability and ground conditions, to better inform construction and infrastructure planning.

On the research side, funding for the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology’s AI investment is due to begin this month, building on its earlier $71 million investment in an advanced technology science platform at the Paihau-Robinson Research Institute. It’s worth keeping an eye on as New Zealand’s AI research settings continue to take shape.

Tim Fairley’s work is also worth exploring. His videos show what it looks like when someone moves past talking about AI in the abstract and starts demonstrating how it can work with drawings, digital models and technical processes. That kind of grounded, visual demonstration is often far more helpful than broad commentary, especially for engineers trying to work out where AI genuinely adds value.

Nomic’s recent blogs are another valuable watch. Their work sits in a part of the AI landscape that’s becoming increasingly important: making large and complex information sets more understandable, explorable and usable. For engineers, that matters because AI capability isn’t just about generation. It’s also about making sense of data, patterns and technical information more effectively.

Avocado AI is one example of the growing number of New Zealand-based providers supporting organisations to build practical AI capability and confidence in using AI well. If you’re looking to build capability in this area, it’s worth exploring the growing range of New Zealand-based training and support options now available.

From our AI Advisory Committee

Robotics on Richard's radar

Engineering New Zealand CE Richard Templer, Chair of the Committee, shares his top robotics pick this month: School of Football | The Ghost Rabona.

Why is this worth watching?

It shows how quickly robotics is evolving. The most compelling examples often sit between novelty and real capability. A football-playing robot might seem light-hearted, but it reflects rapid progress in movement, control, learning and physical interaction with the world – advances with wider implications for engineering, automation and real-world AI systems.

Member spotlight: Blake Harkness

Blake joined the AI Advisory Committee in July 2025 as a graduate engineer working for MainPower. One year later, he’s launched his own company, Harkness AI, building custom AI solutions. Blake brings a valuable perspective to the committee, grounded in both practical engineering experience and the fast-moving world of applied AI.

Following a recent delegation to China with the New Zealand AI Forum, Blake shares observations from a week spent on the ground with companies deploying AI at scale. Explore what holds up in production, where the real constraints lie, and how these developments could shape the future of engineering practice in Aotearoa.

Read the full article

Let us know what you think, what you’d like to see more of, or share a success story of your own – get in touch at ai@engineeringnz.org