NZ Tech Podcast

Host Paul Spain sits down with Scott McLiver, partner and Chief AI Officer at PwC New Zealand, to explore how artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming business. Scott shares insights from his frontline experience helping organisations adapt to AI, emphasising the importance of leadership, practical adoption strategies, and upskilling teams to unlock real productivity gains.
Plus, the latest in tech news and developments including:
• Revved: New Zealand Business & Leadership Summit
• Spark signals potential business sale as it splits into two
• Taumarunui earthquake mobile phone warnings
• Hackers hijack hotel Wi-Fi DNS to steal Microsoft 365 accounts
• Hugging Face hacked by rogue AI agent
• American’s push back against Flock Cameras
• White House intervention on AI models
• A look at Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 and more

Thanks to our partners: Fortinet, One NZ, Workday, 2degrees, Spark, PwC New Zealand, and Gorilla Technology.

Host Paul Spain is joined by Josh Robb, Co-Founder and COO of Tend Health, for an in-depth look at how Tend Health is transforming primary healthcare in New Zealand through digital innovation, AI-powered clinical tools, and the challenges and opportunities of integrating traditional medical centres into a modern, connected care network.
Paul and Josh also explore the latest tech news, including:
• The rise of maritime drones for surveillance and defence
• Skyroot's launch marks a new era for the Indian space industry
• SpaceX's sharp decline in share price
• An AWS glitch delivers a trillion-dollar surprise in estimated cloud bills
• Japan's massive sovereign investment in AI infrastructure
• Microsoft's major patch update, and more
A big thank you to our show partners: One NZ, Spark, PwC, Workday, 2degrees, Fortinet, and Gorilla Technology.

Join host Paul Spain and Neeharika Chowdhary, General Manager of AI and Data Products at One New Zealand. Neeharika shares insights from the recently released 2026 AI Trust Report and discusses how AI is being deployed at scale to enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and accelerate innovation.
Discover how One NZ is approaching AI adoption, building trust, and unlocking new opportunities for customers, employees, and businesses across New Zealand.
Plus the latest tech news including:
Trade Me joins Tech NZ’s online scams code
NZ Government chooses regulation over crypto ATM ban
New York becomes first US state to ban smart glasses
The fight to stop 3D-printed “ghost guns”
Apple files lawsuit against OpenAI over trade secret claims

Special thanks to our show partners: Fortinet, Workday, Spark New Zealand, One New Zealand, 2degrees, PwC New Zealand and Gorilla Technology.

Host Paul Spain is joined by Ben Rose, Head of Financial Services at AA New Zealand. Together they discuss lessons from Money20/20 Bangkok, the rise of agentic commerce, stablecoins, digital finance and how AI is transforming financial services.
They also delve into the latest tech news including:
Google Maps' new Māori pronunciation update
Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14 arrives in New Zealand
UK High Court backs police use of live facial recognition.
AI helps uncover a major vulnerability in ticketing platform
NZ company CarbonScape secures investment and partnership with CATL
Invest NZ's ambitions for large-scale data centre investment

Thanks to our partners: Fortinet, One NZ, Workday, 2degrees, Spark, PwC New Zealand, and Gorilla Technology.

In this episode, host Paul Spain chats with Alain Richardt, founder of Atomic Tessellator. Learn about Alain’s unconventional journey from global tech consultancy to bootstrapping world-class innovation from his living room and discover how this Kiwi deep tech startup is using AI and physics-based simulation to design new materials at the atomic level, before they are physically created.
Plus, the latest in tech news including:
Minister David Seymour urges Pharmac to use more AI
Rocket Lab Acquires Iridium in $14B Deal to Challenge Starlink
SpaceX plans mobile service to rival U.S. carriers
Global “Operation Endgame” disrupts cybercrime assembly line
Apple price hike due to memory costs
Anthropic calls for action over alleged Alibaba Claude cloning

A big thank you to our show partners One NZ, Spark, PwC, Workday, 2degrees, Fortinet and Gorilla Technology.