AI is already changing your business.
The question is - are you leading it or reacting to it?
Join us in February for the AI Summer Interview Series.
Designed for leaders who know AI matters but want clarity before committing
time, money, or trust.
The AI Summer Series exists to help leaders develop clarity, confidence, and perspective in a space that feels noisy and overwhelming.
The series begins 1st February 2026.
Like Netflix for Leaders
The series runs throughout February 2026
Each week we'll release 3-4 interviews (duration ~20mins)
You can watch at your own pace (or binge them all in an hour or so)
Follow the full series or just the conversations most relevant to you
Enjoy, with our compliments
There is NO COST for access.
Your only investment is time, attention, and curiosity.
If AI feels important but unclear, you are not alone
Many leaders are sitting with the same unspoken concerns:
We know AI matters, but we are not sure where to start
We do not want to invest time or money in the wrong tools
We are worried about unintended consequences for our people or culture
We do not want to fall behind competitors who are already moving
We are being asked questions we do not yet have confident answers to
Most leaders are not resisting AI.
They are being thoughtful.
And thoughtful leaders want context before commitment.
What is the AI Summer Series?
The AI Summer Series is a month-long interview series hosted by Sarah Williams and Lance Spalding.
It brings together thoughtful conversations with:
✨ AI experts who explain what actually matters in business terms
✨Leaders and organisations using AI in practical, grounded ways
✨Demonstrations that turn abstract ideas into something tangible
✨Real discussions about risk, responsibility, and opportunity
No, we don't spend our days driving round in fancy cars. This image was generated by AI.
Note: This is not technical training.
It's decision support for people responsible for growth, performance, and culture.
This series is for leaders who are thinking ahead
Across industries, leaders are asking similar questions:
Where does AI genuinely add value in a business like ours?
What risks should we be paying attention to right now?
How do we invest wisely without chasing tools or trends?
What does responsible adoption look like for our people and culture?
How do we stay competitive without losing focus or trust?
You may not be the one using AI day to day - but you are the one shaping direction, priorities, and boundaries.
And those decisions matter.
The real tension leaders are navigating
AI is no longer operating quietly in the background. It is influencing how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how organisations evolve. It is appearing in boardroom conversations, team workflows, hiring discussions, and capability planning.
Leaders are now balancing:
Speed versus stability
Confidence versus risk
Efficiency versus trust
Automation versus human judgement
The organisations that succeed will not be the ones that adopt everything first.
They will be the ones that think clearly and lead intentionally.
What you will take away
By the end of the AI Summer Series, you will have:
A clearer understanding of how AI is changing the business landscape
Practical examples of how organisations are using AI effectively
Insight into where AI adds value and where it does not
A stronger grasp of risks leaders should be considering
Questions and prompts to help shape your own AI approach
Fresh thinking to support growth, efficiency, and innovation
You will not just have more information.
You will have better judgement.
Featured speakers
Throughout the series, you will hear from a diverse group of voices including:
Amanda Reid
Amanda Reid is CEO at BERL, a leading New Zealand economic research consultancy. She specialises in economic analysis, strategic research, and stakeholder engagement, focusing on the Māori economy and labour market. Her research examines barriers and enablers to labour market and business participation, and their impact on inclusion.
Sabrina Teekah
Sabrina T. is a Fractional AI Integration Strategist who helps small businesses (5-15 employees) adopt AI without the chaos. With 17 years of enterprise software development and over 10,000 hours immersed in AI—teaching, consulting, building workshops, and speaking to organizations—she takes a workflow-first approach: understanding how your business actually operates before recommending a single tool. No hype. No "magic button" promises. Just strategic integration that fits how your team already works.
Mateo Orozco
Mateo Orozco is the founder of WayUp, a marketing strategist passionate about turning bold ideas into measurable growth. With 10+ years of experience across a number of industries, he combines creative storytelling with data-driven precision to build brands that inspire, engage, and grow. With multicultural insight and global expertise, he helped brands across New Zealand and Latin America rise above the noise, stand out in competitive markets, and achieve real results.
Martina Doleshal
Martina Doleshal, the founder of Doleshal Consulting Group, is passionate about driving sustainability, regeneration, and innovation across diverse industries. With over 20 years of industry experience as a business growth strategist and futurist, Martina is a recognized expert in adapting innovation frameworks to meet each organization's unique sustainability needs.
Her work focuses on cultivating the potential of employees and stakeholders to implement transformative sustainability projects that result in long-term success. Martina’s deep commitment to sustainability is reflected in her hands-on approach to helping organizations navigate complex sustainability challenges, making it possible to embed sustainable practices into every facet of the business.
Tim Muhundan
Tim Muhundan is the founder of Automate.CX. He helps SMEs grow revenue and retention by designing end-to-end customer journeys and deploying AI-driven CRM automation across sales and service. As CEO of Automate.CX and a Zoho CRM Plus & Zoom CX partner, he unifies data, orchestrates journeys, and surfaces next-best actions teams can trust.
His work covers CX discovery and journey mapping, build and integration, and enablement through practical workshops.
Mike Bayly
Mike is the Managing Partner of Allexive and founder of The AI Corner, working at the intersection of AI, commerce, and growth. Through Allexive, he helps businesses put AI into action by building practical AI operating models that transform operations and sales in the agentic commerce era.
A commercial leader with experience across North America, Europe, the UK, and ANZ, Mike has driven growth at Passionfruit, Salesforce, Fonterra, and Traction on Demand. His background spans sales, marketing, and digital strategy across B2B and B2C sectors.
Annie Johnson
Annie is a bold, human-first voice in the future of work. With a background in psychology, two decades in senior HR and executive roles, and now as cofounder of Humaneer, she’s using AI to rebuild HR from the inside out. She’s fiercely curious, unafraid to challenge the status quo, and driven by a clear mission - to create tools and communities that protect what makes us human while helping us work smarter, not harder. Annie blends sharp strategic thinking with warmth, honesty, and just the right amount of rebellion. She’s not here to follow trends. She’s here to change the game.
Kevin Carlson
Kevin Carlson helps companies and people navigate what’s next, whether that means launching an AI initiative, transforming a tech stack, or building the kind of leadership team that can thrive in uncertainty. He has been in the tech world since the 1980’s, and since 2018, has served as a Fractional CTO and CISO, coached leaders through inflection points, and helped companies, from startups to enterprise, turn vision into execution. He also serves on the board of a SaaS security services company.
Lance Spalding
Lance Spalding is a business growth specialist and the founder of Growth Dynamics. With decades of experience in business strategy, sales, leadership, and operational improvement, Lance Spalding has helped numerous business scale successfully. Lance’s expertise lies in identifying business inefficiencies, optimizing sales and marketing strategies, strengthening leadership teams, and implementing scalable growth frameworks. His hands-on approach ensures that businesses don’t just plan for growth, they achieve it.
Stephen Brown
Introducing Stephen Brown (Stevo) a guy who has spent almost 40years in the QSR industry. That is referring to Quick Service Restaurants, less eloquently know as fast food. As a breakdown Stephen started out in McDonalds Palmerston North as a 16 year old rising through the ranks from an after school job to fund future studies. However 25 years later he was just leaving after a long season in operations at the Auckland head office having held a position on the global team for McCafe (taking coffee to the world). After a short career break working with some local charities here in Auckland Stephen was asked to come and support the Burger King expansion in New Zealand.
As Head of Operations Excellence at Burger King he discovered the benefits for voice AI after optimising the platform and creating a global operational standard for others to learn from. Current day he works with Vox AI. A voice AI company based out of Amsterdam that is bringing innovation, and an industry leading voice AI experience to businesses around the glob"
Brynne Tillman
Brynne Tillman is the CEO of Social Sales Link, co-host of the podcast Making Sales Social, and a co-author of the best-selling books The LinkedIn Edge and Prompt Writing Made Easy. She is best known for helping revenue-driven professionals leverage LinkedIn as a powerful sales tool that opens up more conversations by earning the right. Her work centers on a simple shift. Detach from what the prospect is worth to you and attach to what you are worth to the prospect. Brynne teaches professionals how to position themselves with credibility, share insights that matter to their buyers, and engage in ways that feel natural, relevant, and human, with a strong focus on referrals from clients, networking partners, and COIs. Through training, coaching, and AI-powered prompt frameworks, Brynne helps professionals connect with the right people, start trust-based conversations, and leverage LinkedIn organically as part of the sales process.
Holly Knill
Holly returned to New Zealand in 2021 to steer one of its telcos, 2degrees, back to profitability and to an IPO or sale as its Chief Consumer Officer. She is an executive leader, board director and investor with 20 years' experience in taking advantage of technological change in product development and strategy while driving revenue and customer growth at companies including Sky UK (where she launched the original Sky Go), Joost, 2degrees, twofour54 Abu Dhabi, TVNZ, Foxtel and Seven West Media. She has also worked on large international strategy projects in Telecommunications, SaaS and Media sectors with Accenture and McKinsey in Europe and Australia.
Holly is a certified Director through the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In New Zealand and the U.K. she works with companies and advises boards on improving growth with a focus on company strategy, technology and performance; using AI to leapfrog legacy systems and super-charge strategy, stepping beyond automation (improving efficiency) and into decision-capable AI (improving opportunities). This has formed the backbone of her recently completed master’s research which investigates how the adoption of AI within NZ’s businesses can stimulate business growth and improve national productivity, thereby increasing income levels and standards of living for all. Holly is active in the community as part of the World Class New Zealand network, a Mentor for MentorWalks, a school board member and a Facilitator for the Springboard Trust’s strategic leadership for Principals programme, helping to improve the delivery of primary education across the country.
Register now
The AI Summer Series starts February 1, 2026, and registrations will close ahead of the start date.
If AI is already on your agenda, or quietly moving up the priority list, this is an opportunity to step forward with clarity rather than urgency later.
Hosted by
Sarah Williams and Lance Spalding
Leading Culture
Helping leaders make better decisions at the intersection of culture, growth, and innovation.
In just one week, we compress months—or even years—of work into an intense, focused effort that helps your team tackle your most pressing business growth challenges and generate groundbreaking solutions faster than you ever thought possible.
This accelerated approach wilServicesl empower your team to drive innovation and growth. Our sprint combines the best practices of design thinking, agile methodologies, and lean startup principles to rapidly ideate, prototype, and test new ideas.
How It Works
Pre-Sprint Prep
Get clear on objectives with strategic pre-work
Day 1: Define & Align
Identify the biggest challenges and market opportunities.
Day 2: Ideate & Select
Generate and refine breakthrough product ideas
Day 3: Prototype & Test
Create rapid prototypes to visualize solutions.
Day 4: Validate & Refine
Test concepts with real customers for instant feedback
Day 5: Action & Roadmap
Lock in the next steps for execution and success.
Who Is This For?
Product-based businesses looking to develop and launch new offerings faster.
Companies that want to eliminate wasted time and resources on uncertain ideas.
Teams looking for a structured, proven approach to innovation that delivers results.
Leaders who want to outpace the competition and capitalize on market shifts.
What’s the Cost of Waiting?
Missed market opportunities while competitors innovate faster
Wasted resources on drawn-out development processes
Unvalidated ideas that never gain traction with customers.
Innovation doesn’t have to take years. You just need the right process.
March 17-21 (8:30am - 4:30pm NZT)
Book a call to find out if this sprint is right for your business.
Why Choose Us?
Proven Track Record: Our clients have launched innovative products, improved operational efficiencies, and gained a competitive edge through our Innovation Sprints.
Customized Approach: We tailor every sprint to meet the specific needs of your business, ensuring the outcomes are not only innovative but also directly relevant and impactful.
Sustainable Innovation: Beyond the sprint, we offer ongoing support and strategies to help your organization maintain a culture of continuous innovation.
Transform Challenges into Opportunities
With our Innovation Sprint, you’ll turn business challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation. Contact us today to schedule your sprint and begin your journey toward innovative excellence.
Book a call to find out if this sprint is right for your business.
March 17-21 (8:30am - 4:30pm NZT)