Sold Out – if you would like to register your interest if more seats become available, please email events@nzme.co.nz

PwC Herald Talks - Business & Bots
When machine intelligence and humans collaborate 

Wellington

Following a sell-out first event in Auckland, we’re back on Thurday 10th May with the next PwC Herald Talks – Business & Bots.

What impact could AI have on the future of your business? Josh Comrie, CEO and Co-founder of Ambit, will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss the social impacts of AI and how a collaborative approach between machine intelligence and humankind can improve business productivity and profit.

You’ll leave with the knowledge, insights and strategies to grow and diversify in the ever-changing landscape of New Zealand business.

Tickets include a stand-up networking breakfast, barista coffee and the opportunity to network with like-minded business professionals.

Event Format

7:00am Registration & stand-up networking breakfast with barista coffee
7:35am MC Welcome (Simon Dallow)
7:40am Keynote Speaker
8:00am Panel Discussion
8:30am Q&A
8:45am MC Wrap Up
9:00am End

Book a corporate bundle and save:

Pay as little as $62 per ticket by purchasing a discounted corporate package:
3 tickets for $216 - save $51
5 tickets for $335 - save $110
10 tickets for $620 - save $270 

Find out more at www.pwcheraldtalks.co.nz

Keynote Speaker

Josh Comrie - CEO & Co-Founder, Ambit

Josh is an Entrepreneur, Investor and Company Director. He’s a founder and the CEO of Ambit: a NZ owned Artificial Intelligence Platform company. He’s invested in over 20 NZ hi-tech startups, so is behind some of NZ’s most successful technology exports. He acts as a director and adviser to several and Chair of one, however some simply want his money. Prior to his AI ventures, he has a background in human capital solutions, having founded and exited from 3 highly successful brands. 

Through his role as CEO, Josh advises organisations and individuals on how to extract the value from this nascent technology along with avoiding the pitfalls of new to market offerings. His perspective of AI is unique as he blends the human element, a business level view of technology and the future of work. 

Sitting at the global forefront of technology, Ambit has created a proprietary Smartbot platform. In what is a rapidly expanding and evolving market, Ambit has established a local leadership position and is moving into the global market. 

In his talk he will cover the history and state of AI, the current uses of the technology, why it’s likely to change the world and how you can get started.

Panellists

Mike Burke – Director, Westpac Ventures

Mike Burke is a founding member of Westpac Ventures. The innovative and entrepreneurial business unit charged with pioneering what is next in banking focusing on horizon 2 and 3 opportunities. They are the team that pioneered the launch of Cloud, API’s and consumer facing AI among many others for banking in Australasia.

Mike was the business owner that produced ‘Wes’, Westpac NZ’s artificially intelligent personal financial assistant, launching in July as the first banking chatbot in Australasia and now partners with the squad to help achieve their strategy. He enjoys anything to do with eggs benedict, is learning lots about horse farming and is expecting his first child in September.

Dr Elizabeth Broadbent - Associate Professor in Health Psychology, University of Auckland

Dr Elizabeth Broadbent is an Associate Professor in Health Psychology in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She obtained an honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Canterbury University (1995), to pursue her interest in making personal robots. After becoming interested in the psychological aspects of illness and in psychoneuroimmunology, she obtained her MSc (2002) and PhD degrees (2005) in health psychology from the University of Auckland. She now combines her health psychology and robotics interests to study healthcare robotics. Elizabeth is a Vice Chair of the multidisciplinary CARES robotics group. In 2010, Elizabeth was a visiting academic at the School of Psychology at Harvard University and in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA. In 2017, she obtained a Fulbright award to return to Boston to conduct further research on companion robots. She has over 100 journal publications, including randomised trials on the health benefits of personal robots.

David Jones - General Manager, Business Growth & Innovation, WREDA

David has over twenty years’ experience of regenerating and growing city economies in both the UK and New Zealand, alongside specific experience of working in the commercial sector at start-up through to multi-national company level.  He has founded a business accelerator company, in 2016 was one of The Sunday Times prestigious Maserati 100 for services to entrepreneurship and now heads up Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency’s (WREDA’s) intervention in business growth, investment and talent attraction.  He is the overall lead for WREDA’s tech, screen and digital sector intervention, and as part of that has been responsible for WREDA’s role in the LookSee global talent attraction campaign that resulted in over 48,000 people applying to be part of the Wellington tech scene. David is now a member of the Partnership on AI global working group on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the workforce

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