Icehouse announced as a partner in MBIE's AI initiative

Over the past 12 months, AI has shifted from "interesting" to "inescapable" for business leaders. For many SME owners, it's become a real monkey on their back — a persistent pressure they can't ignore. The conversations have changed: they're no longer asking whether AI matters, but rather where to start, what's safe, and what actually works in the real world.

That’s the context behind a new national initiative led by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) — and we’re proud to share that Icehouse has been selected as an approved service provider for the RBPN AI Advisory Pilot.

So what is the AI Advisory Pilot?

The RBPN AI Advisory Pilot is a $7.65m government-backed programme designed to help small businesses move from curiosity to practical application of AI.

Eligible SMEs can access up to $15,000 of co-funded support to:

• understand where AI could genuinely improve productivity,
• develop a clear, business-ready AI roadmap, and
• in some cases, implement real AI workflows or automations inside their business.

This isn’t about shiny tools or theoretical workshops. It’s about testing, in the real world, how AI can help New Zealand businesses save time, reduce friction, and compete more effectively — while also gathering evidence to inform future policy and support programmes.

What MBIE is really trying to do

At its core, this pilot is about productivity and capability.

New Zealand’s productivity challenge won’t be solved by technology alone. It will be solved when business leaders:

• understand AI well enough to make good decisions,
• adopt it in ways that fit their people, systems, and customers, and
• avoid costly missteps driven by hype or poor advice.

MBIE’s goal is to learn what actually works for SMEs, where the real barriers sit, and how future support can be designed to scale what’s effective across the country.

The role we’ll be playing

The Icehouse has spent more than 20 years supporting SMEs and leadership teams across New Zealand. Over the past year, we’ve been deliberately building A.icehouse — our AI capability initiative — around a simple principle:

AI adoption is a leadership and business challenge first, and a technology challenge second.

As Ghanum Taylor, Head of A.icehouse, explains:

“What we’ve seen through our own pilot work with SMEs is that the challenge isn’t enthusiasm for AI — it’s uncertainty. Leaders know it matters, but they’re unsure where to start, what’s realistic, and how to apply AI without disrupting their people or breaking things that already work. When we sit down with businesses and work through real workflows, the fog lifts very quickly. This pilot is about giving SMEs that clarity and confidence, based on what actually works in their context — not theory or hype.”

Through the pilot, we’ll be working directly with selected SMEs to understand their business context, identify high-value AI opportunities, build clear AI roadmaps, and where appropriate, support the implementation of practical AI workflows.

We’ll be doing this in partnership with Harnex, who bring deep technical expertise, while Icehouse leads the business, change, and leadership side of the work. Importantly, we remain vendor-neutral — our role is to help businesses make good decisions, not sell software.

Just as importantly, we’ll be contributing anonymised insights back into the pilot to help shape what good AI support for SMEs should look like in New Zealand.

What this means for our community

If you’re an SME owner or leader, this pilot signals that AI support is becoming more practical, more grounded, and more accessible — and that the conversation is shifting from hype to real productivity and capability uplift.

If you’re not eligible for the pilot, that’s okay. The learnings from this work will directly inform our AI Foundations programmes and how we continue to support leaders to adopt AI responsibly and confidently.

We believe New Zealand has a real opportunity here — but only if we approach AI thoughtfully, practically, and with leadership at the centre.