Human In The Loop

Recorded live at the Aotearoa AI Summit 2026 in Wellington, this episode brings together six voices spanning the boardroom to the hackathon floor, and ultimately considering when does the human in the loop matter most?

In this episode, we hear from:

Madeline Newman — Executive Director, AI Forum NZ

Lou Compagnone — Director, Artificial Intelligence, Datacom

Akilan S — Head of Marketing, Zoho CRM and Zia Agents,

Martijn Verburg — Head of Engineering, Microsoft New Zealand

Wise Group Hackathon Team — Winners, 2026 Aotearoa AI Hackathon

Graeme Muller — Chief Executive, Tech NZ (NZTech)

Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/

Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/

Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL

Email alaina@rushdigital.co.nz if you have feedback, comments, questions or compliments
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Angie Judge is the Chief Data & Intelligence Officer at accesso, where she leads the vision and strategy for accesso Intelligence helping organisations across the experience economy turn data into confident decisions through predictive analytics and AI. She joined accesso following its 2026 acquisition of Dexibit, the company she founded in 2016 and grew into the leading data and AI platform purpose-built for visitor attractions, used by some of the world's most iconic venues.

Before Dexibit, Angie held technology and transformation roles at Hewlett Packard and Amdocs, focused on network analytics and enterprise technology across the telecommunications, finance and public sectors. A frequent international speaker on artificial intelligence and the future of the experience economy, she's known for practical, grounded approaches to applying AI to operations, commercial performance and guest experience.

We discuss:

· The impact of the pandemic on the GLAM industry

· The silver lining opportunity to rebuild a SaaS product during downtime

· Deep vertical expertise as a data unlock

Angie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angiejudge/

Accesso's website: https://accesso.com/

Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/
Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/
Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL
Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/

Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/

Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL

Email alaina@rushdigital.co.nz if you have feedback, comments, questions or compliments
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perrin Rowland is Chief Product & Experience Officer at academyEX. Before that she built and matured the design function at Westpac New Zealand — including their Customer Care Lab — and led user experience and CX maturity at Spark through a full agile transformation. She's taught information architecture and UX at New York University, worked with the Nielsen Norman Group, and describes herself, wonderfully, as a designer of journeys and a maker of maps.

We discuss:

· How to seize the opportunity to be a 'maker' with AI tools at your fingertips

· Tips for getting more out of your LLM workflows

· What's the CX problem everyone's trying to solve with AI, that AI is the wrong tool for

Perrin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrinrowland/

academyEX's website: https://academyex.com/

Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/
Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/
Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL
Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/

Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/

Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL

Email alaina@rushdigital.co.nz if you have feedback, comments, questions or compliments
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Neelesh Rampal is a climate data scientist at Earth Sciences New Zealand who uses generative AI to understand how record-shattering events like the Auckland Anniversary floods will change as the planet warms. He also co-leads a global task force setting responsible standards for AI in regional climate modelling, as many of the tech giants race into the field.
Neelesh taught himself machine learning, won $1M in competitive Smart Ideas funding with no initial grant-writing experience, used it to help fund his own PhD (completed in two and a half years, full-time), then won a second bid. He was a 2026 Science New Zealand Awards finalist in the Early Career Researcher category.

We discuss:

· How generative AI is being used to forecast weather and model our future climate

· Why "physics-informed" machine learning beats letting a model guess freely

· What Neelesh's work means for critical infrastructure and NZ's climate resilience

Neelesh on Linkedin: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/neelesh-unleashed

NIWA People: https://niwa.co.nz/people/neelesh-rampal

A website on Neelesh's research: https://niwa.co.nz/climate-and-weather/high-resolution-climate-projections-using-physics-and-ai

And his Google Scholar research page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D-0-fHUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/
Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/
Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL
Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/

Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/

Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL

Email alaina@rushdigital.co.nz if you have feedback, comments, questions or compliments
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Malindi MacLean is VP of Customer at Halter, the New Zealand-founded agritech company transforming farming through solar-powered smart collars for cattle. She leads Halter's Global Customer Team across Auckland, Colorado, Australia, and Argentina.

Malindi began her career as a professional cyclist representing New Zealand, before moving into senior commercial roles at Coca-Cola Amatil, IAG, and Hubbards. In 2021 she became the first female CEO of Outward Bound New Zealand — a role she stepped into seven months pregnant, in the middle of a pandemic — where she became a leading voice on youth development and wellbeing.

Across every chapter, the through-line is the same: a deep belief in people, purpose, and challenge as the engines of growth.

We discuss:

· How a self-professed "anti-tech" person found purpose inside a tech company

· What it takes to build high performing teams in different industries

· Lessons that charities and private enterprise can learn from each other

Malindi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malindi-maclean-b6142470/

Halter's website: https://www.halterhq.com/en-nz

Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/
Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/
Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL
Follow us on Instagram: @humaninthelooppodcast

Find us on LinkedIn:

Alaina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-luxmoore/

Hamish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hafriedlander/

Danu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuabey/

Sign up to The RUSH newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmARzL

Email alaina@rushdigital.co.nz if you have feedback, comments, questions or compliments
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.