'AI confetti': 91% of Kiwi firms use AI, but only 15% scale it company-wide

PremiumChris KeallTechnology Editor/Senior Business Writer·NZ Herald·28 Aug, 2026 05:00 PM6 mins to read‌“In Australia, every single government department now has a chief AI officer," says Lou Compagnone, Datacom's director of AI.The good news from Datacom’s fourth annual AI Index survey: uptake across New Zealand businesses has reached 91%.The bad news: a lot of it is what the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) director Lou Compagnone calls “AI confetti”.

Individual staff are using the technology for ad hoc improvements in