Young Kiwis in AI Auckland Meetup at Zuru: Recap
Drafted with AI assistance.
Key takeaways
- Build something useful. Not impressive, useful. A real problem in your own life. Ugly and finished beats polished and planned.
- Let people know. Post it, talk about it, message the person. Nobody can hire what they cannot see.
- Be unmistakably you. AI can copy the work. It cannot copy your taste or your story.
On Friday 21 August 2026, Young Kiwis in AI (YKIA) held its August Auckland meetup inside Zuru’s Auckland HQ on Victoria Street West. It was free to attend and it filled fast: 90 people registered within two days of the announcement, 46 more joined the waitlist, and the room was full on the night.
The format was simple. Four short talks back to back, then food, drinks and a lot of conversations.
Blake filmed the whole Auckland day, which finished at this meetup. Watch the vlog, Inside Auckland’s Young AI Community, above or on YouTube.
The talks
Callum Quin, Group AI Integration Lead at Zuru, on what Zuru is doing with AI and his advice for people starting out.
Will Montague-Brown from Caivo on building an AI consultancy.
Caitlin Langlands from Zeil on where the jobs are heading.
Blake Harkness, founder of YKIA, on graduating into a world of AI and what his AI trip to China taught him.
Thank you
Massive thanks to Callum and the Zuru team for opening up the HQ, and to Will and Caitlin for the talks. Zuru is listed with the other businesses that have backed the community on our supporters page.
What is next
The next Auckland meetup is announced to the community first, so join YKIA if you want to hear about it before it goes public. The Auckland meetups page shows what is coming up in the city.
The biggest one is the YKIA National Conference 2027 on Friday 12 February 2027 at Novotel Auckland Airport. If your company wants to be in that room, the sponsorship tiers are published.
