With artificial intelligence (AI) hitting fever pitch and AI companies becoming trillion-dollar organisations, it seems everyone wants to cash in on the boom, writes Aimee Shaw.

According to AI, New Zealand’s AI startup scene is booming. The rise of artificial intelligence is seeing new businesses and industries popping up across New Zealand, but one expert warns the rapid rise of the AI-adjacent industry puts startups at risk of being wiped out by international giants.

The homegrown AI industry is producing a string of interesting tech businesses, everything from firms that create assistants for doctors and nurses and issue-spotting notetakers to damage assessments and repair estimates, with local entrepreneurs embracing - and putting their own spin on AI technology to create niche offerings with global ambitions.

The global AI market is valued at between US$300 billion (NZ$525b) and US$600b, and forecast to reach US$4 trillion by 2033.

It is expanding rapidly, with major investments in software, cloud infrastructure and enter- prise adoption picking up pace.

Spending on AI is forecast to skyrocket to US$2.5t in 2026.

Global tech giants are pouring billions of dollars into building AI infrastructure, and products and services that help consumers and organisations utilise the rapidly scaling technology, some partnering with private equity firms, banks and consulting firms to do so.

And on the other end of the spectrum, the same is happening among the start-up community here, 10,000km away from the heart of development in San Francisco.

Auckland-based entrepreneur Andrew Wierda, co-founder and chief executive of AI-powered legal, tax and accounting research startup Nylon (formerly Law Cyborg), is one of a growing number of companies building businesses using AI.

The former EY tax lawyer started the company two years ago, and already has 1650 customers across New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

Nylon, which markets itself as a faster way to conduct legal tax research, is fast-growing. Wierda says each month this year the company has onboarded more customers than the previous month.

“We’re seeing huge uptake in Australia and the UK for what we do,” he tells the Sunday Star- Times.

Working in the “AI application layer” of the technology, Wierda says “the lines are getting blurred more and more”, with the company creating “a harness for AI” - in essence a way for it to be able to access files and information easier, so it can get to a more accurate answer.

“There is a swift pattern where professionals, at least in our industry, are realising that AI can really assist them in producing higher-quality output.

“The common view on AI is that it would be a cheap way of doing something, and maybe even a lower-quality way of doing something, however, with specialist services like ours, the profession is realising they can actually use AI for higher-quality output and do things to a higher standard than they would have been able to do manually.”

Accountants, tax consultants and organisations are engaging with Nylon to drive productivity, says Wierda. “They use our product to often review thoughts they already had. They might have thought the tax implications of a certain transaction was X, so they put it into our tool and double check it is in fact X, and they’re basically given all the primary sources, so they can double check their own thinking in accordance with the law.”

Wierda describes Nylon as “like a Claude that looks much more thoroughly through the case law, legislation, and tax authority guidance to come to an answer that is much more accurate in less time” and is bullish about the opportunities for growth ahead.

The company, which recently rolled out its live tax issue-spotting notetaker, employs a team of 30 and develops its technology in central Auckland. It also has a UK office, where business is growing rapidly.

“We are constantly hiring and onboarding new customers. We expect that we will at least double in size this year.”

Wierda believes New Zealand’s next unicorn will be an AI company, arguing that the country’s lifestyle advantages helped attract strong international talent. The main drawback is New Zealand’s capital-poor environment, but he notes that recent advances in AI have made it possible to build software far faster and with far less capital, reducing what had traditionally been the biggest barrier to starting and scaling a company here.

That is why so many local entrepreneurs are embracing the technology in their ventures, he says, especially where there was a lot of paperwork.

This article was originally published in The Post. Please click here for the full article.