Advise
Independent strategy, governance and roadmaps for boards and executive teams. Where AI genuinely earns its place in your business — and where it doesn't.
Auckland · Aotearoa New Zealand · Since 2000
JustinFlitter
26 years of building the communities that needed to exist, but didn't.
Right now that's AI as the Founder of AI New Zealand providing practical, independent advice on why, where and how to use artificial intelligence.
When the community I was looking for didn't exist, I found partners to create it.— The same move, nine times over, since 2000
What I do now
Practical, independent advice on AI.
I help leaders make informed decisions on why, where and how to use artificial intelligence — then help their people build the skills to actually do it. With a team of nine, we support organisations across Aotearoa.
Teach
Practical, skills-based training through workshops and the NZ AI Academy: self-paced courses on Microsoft Copilot for M365, the AI Ambassador programme, and live webinars.
Build
The AI Operating System — one governed, trusted AI environment your whole team can work in. Plus AI agents, custom software and model development, with a team that ships.
Share
The weekly AI Toolkit, The Great New Zealand AI Roadshow and commentary in the national media. Everything I learn goes back out to the community it came from.
The journey I've been on
Highlights of my career to date
26Years building business communities
9Communities founded or led
75,000+Combined membership
700+Speaking events
Not one career in AI, but a long habit of getting people into a room and giving them something useful to take home. From a business incubator on the top floor of Wellington Railway Station to a national AI academy — the same move each time. Find the people, build the room, share what works.
AI New Zealand Founder & Director
Independent, practical advice helping businesses, organisations and community groups discover why, where and how to leverage AI. Training, governance, strategy and build — with a team of nine.
NZ AI Academy Founder
Launched after The Great NZ AI Roadshow. More than 2,500 members and 200+ events delivered in 2025, including the This Is AI business webinar series with ANZ Bank.
Business Mentors New Zealand Director & Board Member
Governance and mentoring for a national organisation promoting business support across Aotearoa.
NZ Tech Marketers Group Chairperson, six years
A national grass-roots community connecting marketers across New Zealand's technology sector, sitting inside the wider Tech New Zealand whānau.
The AI Show & AI-Day
A monthly Auckland event drawing 200–300 people, curating technical experts and business leaders. It became the catalyst for AI-Day — the international conferences co-produced with the AI Forum of New Zealand in 2018 and 2019.
TEDxAuckland Producer, emcee, speaker coach
Fourteen years on the leadership team of Auckland's platform for ideas worth spreading, alongside Elliott Blade.
Auckland Social Media Club Co-founder
Occasional tweet-ups became a monthly gathering of 200–300 people, hearing how these new platforms were changing customer behaviour, brands and real-time support.
Zendesk Seventh hire
Joined at around 1,000 customers, wrote the product documentation, became APAC business development manager, then created the company's Social Media Manager role. By 2011 the social programme was generating 10% of new customers.
Wellington Young Professionals Group Founder
Launched in partnership with the New Zealand Institute of Management. Hundreds of monthly attendees, learning from local business leaders.
NRG Trust Business Incubator Founder
One of New Zealand's first business incubators, in the old creche on the top floor of Wellington Railway Station. Funded by Wellington City Council and Te Puni Kōkiri, governed by a board of six recruited at after-fives. More than 20 businesses passed through before he handed it over to the local business development organisation in 2004.
Speaking
From anxiety to action.
I help New Zealand businesses turn AI from hype into advantage, with practical, energising keynotes that move a room. Conferences, leadership offsites, industry events and in-house sessions, across New Zealand and beyond.
The signature keynote
Everyone has AI.
Everyone has AI.
The difference is you.
A fast, practical talk on what has actually changed in AI, why most teams are stuck on low value uses, and the habits, culture and operating system that separate the organisations pulling ahead. Real New Zealand examples, real wins, and a clear path to Monday.
Everyone has AI
Why the tools are now table stakes, and where the real advantage actually lives.
The AI Operating System
Connecting your whole team to one governed, trusted AI environment that scales.
An AI culture
The curiosity, critical thinking and practical skills that win with AI.
Quick wins to Monday
The practical moves any team can make this week to start saving real hours.
Media
In the national conversation.
Twenty-six years of building things in public leaves a trail. A selection, newest first.
NZ HeraldRNZNewstalk ZBinterest.co.nzScoopAI Forum NZANZ
- NZ Herald Why cuts first, AI later is the wrong move for New Zealand's public service 2026
- interest.co.nz Unpacking AI: what New Zealand's AI Roadshow taught me about upskilling the workforce 2026
- Newstalk ZB "Plenty of applications": how can AI revolutionise business? — Kerre Woodham Mornings 2025
- RNZ Afternoons Bookmarks with Justin Flitter 2024
- RNZ News Businesses urged to view artificial intelligence as an opportunity, not a threat 2023
- AI Forum NZ AI Day 2019 to present major advances in sector 2019
- Scoop Blockchain to flex muscles at Blockworks conference 2018
About
Wellington to San Francisco, Invercargill to Delhi.
Justin Flitter has spent 26 years creating and leading communities that help business leaders leverage emerging technology. He graduated from Massey University in Wellington in 1999 with a Bachelor of Business Information, majoring in marketing and communications management, and founded his first business incubator the following year.
Alongside the community work he has held marketing and technology leadership roles across a long list of New Zealand and global companies — including Zendesk, Fishpond, Honda New Zealand, Tomizone, RESULTS.com, Valocity Global, Data Insight and Virsae — and spent fourteen years as a freelance and fractional chief marketing officer. He wrote Unrivaled — B2B Marketing Strategy & Activation, and judged the TVNZ NZ Marketing Awards from 2019 to 2023.
He represented New Zealand on the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, the international initiative led by the Canadian and French governments, on its Innovation and Commercialisation working group.
He hosts the national AI Roadshow and the weekly AI Toolkit, and is one of New Zealand's most active voices on what AI actually means for business.
He lives in Auckland with his wife Livvy, their daughter Fern, a schnauzer called Zeus and Zephyr the cat.
Contact
Let's talk.
Speaking enquiries, advisory work, or a straight conversation about where your organisation actually is with AI.
justin@flitter.co.nz