Everyone is talking about AI. Almost nobody is telling business owners what to actually do on Monday morning.
In this Marketing 4 Business episode, Scott chats with Blake Harkness, the AI engineer behind Harkness AI, about what AI can actually do inside a normal New Zealand business right now. Blake started a mechatronics degree, watched ChatGPT answer his entire coursework, and pivoted. He now works as a fractional AI partner, runs a 300-strong community called Young Kiwis in AI, and recently went to China on a national delegation to see where this is all heading. No hype, just the practical version:
- Blake explains how AI took his proposal process from 4 hours to 5 minutes, with a human review at the end
- Why you must pay for your AI tools, and the confidential contract story from the States that shows what happens when you do not
- Blake's rule for connecting AI to your systems: read-only first, add permissions gradually, never go full ham from the start
- Scott shares why he scrapped his AI chatbot and AI phone answering project and hired a call centre of real people instead
- The full breakdown of how a one-man fencing supplier automated Xero invoicing, repeat inquiries and calendar booking using Claude and a set of skills
- What Blake saw in China: room-service robots riding elevators, AI triage in hospitals, and scan interpretation cut by 80%
- Why job roles shift rather than disappear, and the two risks Blake sees: using no AI at all, or using AI for everything and learning nothing
- Blake's 5 steps to get AI ready, including the testing mistake almost everyone makes
- Scott's take on the AI bubble from an investor's seat, and why retail investors usually wear it
- The intern who posted 5 Instagram Reels and had a job by day 5
If you are a business owner drowning in admin, unsure which AI tools are worth paying for, or being pitched six-figure AI projects you suspect you do not need, this episode is well worth your time.
Download the Local Business AEO Playbook HERE. A free, step-by-step guide showing you how to position your business to be recommended by AI.
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