The Ultimate Guide to AI Agents
A curated Kiwi edition of TechDay news, analysis, interviews, reviews, job moves, and related resources for AI Agents (Agentic AI).
What to know about AI Agents
AI agents represent a transformative area within artificial intelligence, focusing on autonomous or semi-autonomous systems capable of performing complex tasks and making decisions to enhance business operations and personal productivity.
Our recent stories highlight how AI agents are rapidly evolving across sectors—from cybersecurity and data management to customer experience and enterprise automation. Companies are integrating AI agents to improve efficiency, drive innovation, and manage security risks in increasingly sophisticated ways.
By exploring these developments, readers can gain insights into the potential benefits, emerging applications, and challenges associated with AI agent deployment. Whether you're interested in how AI agents enhance software development, automate workflows, or secure enterprise environments, this tag offers a comprehensive look at this dynamic and impactful technology.
Kiwi AI Agents News
Regional stories with direct local relevance
NZ firms need better systems before scaling AI, Reframr
Only 2% of New Zealand organisations see themselves as AI teamwork leaders, as most spending still favours technology over people.
Halter's Clank AI cuts engineering time in farm tech
Farming customers could see faster fixes as the system now handles alert triage and code changes, saving more than 215 engineering hours.
New Zealand firms split on AI as strategy gap widens
Only 15% of New Zealand businesses have an AI strategy, leaving most unable to measure returns or prepare for the next wave of tools.
Explainer: Why is everyone talking about AI and the end of the world?
Calls for tighter AI safeguards have intensified after warnings the technology could outpace human control and threaten jobs, security and markets.
AI extinction is only one way the future is frightening
Fears are mounting that unchecked AI could unleash cyberattacks, market shocks and job losses long before any extinction event.
OpenAI says Kiwis use ChatGPT to save hours weekly
New Zealand users are saving hours a week with ChatGPT, as the tool is used for work, budgets, health checks and trip planning.
Analyst Insights
Research and market analysis connected to AI Agents
Broadridge holds third in IDC FinTech Rankings again
Hack The Box launches AI range for enterprise security teams
The Hidden Cost of Supply Chain Complexity
Fortinet: The AI challenge is visibility and control, not permission
Fastly named Leader in IDC MarketScape WAAP assessment
Featured News
Scaling AI means reinventing how work gets done
The shift could reshape hiring, audits and pay as firms move from AI pilots to automated workflows that rely on new guardrails.
Workday is a Fortune 500 startup reborn for the AI era
Its AI-first overhaul has cut layers, sped product cycles and left the company betting that startup-style speed can still serve Fortune 500 customers.
UST: Businesses must rethink how AI returns are measured
Australian firms risk spending increasing resources on AI pilots that ultimately fail to prove gains in revenue, efficiency or customer service.
Celonis banking head: Banks want proof before scaling agents
Celonis argues frontier AI models are too generic for regulated banking, urging firms to weigh cost, risk and process gains before scaling deployments.
Interview: Cloudera says AI agents reshape zero trust
Enterprises must update identity controls as software agents generate more requests and need tightly time-limited access to sensitive systems.
Zscaler takes zero trust beyond the corporate network
Critical infrastructure operators are using cellular links to secure distributed assets as outages and spoofing raise the stakes for resilience.
Workiva: The secret compliance and reporting arms race
Driven by improved tooling, finance teams are meeting higher standards as regulators and analysts scrutinise disclosures faster.
Filigran: Does your CISO know enough?
CISOs are under pressure to answer boardroom questions on exposure in minutes, as Filigran pushes CTEM and open-source validation tools.
Exclusive: ABBYY says AI build costs will drive buying
Enterprises could cut AI spend by up to 80% by shifting document workflows away from custom builds and into standard platforms.
Exclusive: ABBYY brings zero-shot document AI to Vantage
Enterprises can now extract data from unseen document types without templates, as ABBYY rolls out zero-shot capabilities in Vantage.
Interview: Cloudera bets on hybrid AI growth in JAPAC
Banks and large enterprises in Asia-Pacific are rethinking cloud-first AI plans as costs, sovereignty and regulation favour hybrid deployments.
AI transforms CX to go beyond the chatbot
Consumers now expect faster, more automated support as AI agents handle complex customer journeys, though many firms still struggle to prove ROI.
Open source is powering the next generation of frontier AI
Rising inference demand and custom hardware needs are pushing AI infrastructure beyond standard cloud setups, boosting open source tools.
Governance controls are crucial for AI adoption and modernisation
Trusted partners and tighter guardrails are becoming essential as AI agents expand the attack surface and put data sovereignty on the line.
Exclusive: Cloudera builds Hadoop-free future platform
Existing customers get six years of support as Cloudera shifts new AI and analytics workloads to a Hadoop-free platform due in November.
Mimecast CEO: Agentic AI threat novel but not entirely new
Hidden AI risks are already widespread in workplaces, with Mimecast saying users are driving shadow tools and most exposure still starts with people.
Rimini Street offers AI magic without the forced ERP migration
CIOs can keep existing ERP systems and still adopt agentic AI, as Rimini Street pitches a cheaper path away from vendor-led migrations.
Customers at the centre of Adobe's new AI evangelist role
Adobe is using the post to help customers navigate AI adoption while feeding regional priorities back into its global product strategy.
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Apple's Unified Memory powers Kiraa AI's rapid automation
Australian firms can speed month-end processing from days to an hour by running Kiraa AI on Macs instead of costly cloud servers.
Jamf launches AI Governance to enhance visibility, security
IT teams can now track AI models on Apple fleets to curb data leaks and token spend as businesses wrestle with shadow AI.
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AI models expose new attack surfaces through misconfiguration
Misconfigured models are giving attackers a fresh route into cloud systems, raising the risk of data theft and service compromise.
Zendesk's outcome-based pricing balances AI with human touch
Businesses will pay only for closed support cases under Zendesk's new model, as the software group ties AI automation to human fallback.
AI will fade, says Dell Technologies' ephemeral Chief AI Officer
Dell says agentic AI should shift routine tasks below the machine line, freeing staff for expert work while making the role temporary.
Schrodinger's ERP both dead and alive, says Rimini Street
Businesses can avoid costly ERP rip-and-replace projects by layering AI and automation onto existing systems, Rimini Street says.
ClickHouse customer base soars on back of AI demand
AI agents are driving a sharp rise in demand for the real-time data platform, which added 1000 customers early in 2026 to top 4000.
Fresh perspective: New Gentrack CTO on AI-driven utility future
AI tools could cut utility costs and reduce customer friction as Gentrack's new Chief Technology Officer pushes a more proactive service model.
Check Point CTO on AI's double-edged sword
AI is shrinking the gap between vulnerability disclosure and real-world exploitation to hours, forcing security teams to adapt fast.
Reviews
Expert Columns
Data Governance in the AI Era: Why One-Off Projects Fail
AI in Retail is Only as Good as its Data Foundation
AI isn't the problem, Australia's natural resources industry needs business orchestration
Building Infrastructure for an AI World in Motion
Three technology myths CIOs should stop believing
The next eCommerce interface may not be a screen
In the AI era, channel value is being redefined
Stop saying AI hacked the system
AGI is coming. The future of work isn't ready
The data center math has changed
Interviews
Interviews and video coverage from the networkRecent AI Agents News
Zoom launches AI tools to link chats, meetings & work
The new tools are meant to cut time lost piecing together decisions across apps, while Zoom also expects to top USD $5 billion in annual revenue this year.
Zoom unveils AI tools linking meetings to business work
Users will be able to search across Zoom and more than 40 apps, while AI agents turn meeting notes into tasks and updates.
Zoom adds unified customer context across CX tools
Businesses using Zoom's CX tools will be able to see a single customer history across channels, cutting repeat explanations and speeding resolutions.
Telstra & Ericsson expand push on autonomous networks
The move aims to tackle a key barrier to telecoms automation, helping operators share trusted network data across vendors and domains more reliably.
Cloudflare says developer base tops 10 million as AI surges
AI is driving a surge in automated traffic, with Cloudflare saying more than half of internet requests were non-human for the first time this year.
Tenable launches open AI partner network for security
Security teams can now connect exposure data with third-party AI tools to triage risks faster without building custom integrations.
Denodo study finds 290% AI data layer return on investment
Enterprises could cut AI operating costs by 68% over three years by routing queries through the layer and filtering data before model ingestion.
Financial firms deploy AI agents unmonitored, study warns
A compliance gap is leaving 22% of financial services firms running AI agents in production without monitoring, a New Relic study warns.
Workday & Anthropic link AI tools for HR & finance
The tie-up will let HR and finance staff move between both systems without resetting permissions, while automating tasks such as compensation reviews and book closes.
Bloomberg launches Enterprise MCP for AI data access
Financial firms could cut manual data-matching work as Bloomberg's new interface gives AI agents governed access to more than 100 million securities.
Zetaris launches AI data harness with SpaceXAI tie-up
The tie-up could help enterprise AI tools reach live data more securely, while Zetaris claims its cloud service may cut total cost of ownership by up to 67%.
AppViewX adds shadow AI agent controls & quantum IDs
Security teams can now spot unsanctioned AI agents, stop them mid-run and issue quantum-resilient identities as usage spreads across enterprises.
Anthropic names Gorilla Logic as Claude services partner
Enterprise users of Claude can now tap Gorilla Logic's services to get the AI model through security reviews and into production systems.
Data issues stall AI projects at most organisations
Most organisations are still losing time on manual data prep and siloed records, with 86% reporting AI disruption in the past year.
Tech Mahindra expands Google Cloud AI training push
With customers moving from AI trials to live deployments, the move will train more than 12,500 associates worldwide to build and govern agents.
Hadrian raises USD $40 million to expand cybersecurity
The fresh capital will fund Hadrian's expansion across EMEA and the US as companies struggle to prioritise exploitable security risks.
Boomi buys Elementary Data to boost AI reliability
The acquisition gives enterprises extra controls to stop bad data from skewing AI outputs and automated actions at scale.
Microsoft expands Project Perception to police AI agents
Growing use of AI agents in corporate systems is creating a new internal risk category, prompting tighter real-time oversight from security teams.
Zendesk launches AI tools to automate employee support
Early users have already run 6 million workflows in five weeks, as the software group pushes deeper into employee support automation.
Australia & NZ lag on deep AI integration, CPA says
Only 11 per cent of businesses in Australia and New Zealand have deeply embedded AI, leaving the two markets bottom of a regional survey.
