ClearPoint’s Journey To AI Excellence & the impact on New Zealand playing on a global scale

The exponential advancements that are coming out of recent AI models have been sending growing ripple effects through every sector. While there will be disruption, there is also profound economic opportunity for those willing to adopt and adapt as well as the New Zealand economy as a whole. We talk with the local Generative AI and Software Engineering experts ClearPoint about their AI journey, industry adoption and how New Zealand could be primed to take advantage of the AI revolution.

For close to two decades, ClearPoint has helped local and international companies across a wide range of industries adapt to technological advancements and digital innovation potential. And while the New Zealand-founded company has built a reputation for being at the cutting edge of all things cutting-edge, they are also on a journey to redefine themselves in the age of AI. “We’re in the midst of a significant shift, akin to the advent of the internet, but the pace… it’s unprecedented,” observes ClearPoint CTO, Rob Cleghorn, a respected voice in the
tech world.

“And we’re only just starting to tap into the things you can do with AI. If you’re thinking of AI as being able to do things faster, that’s nice, but actually, you can rethink the way you even run your businesses or you run your life around some of the things that it can do,” suggests Cleghorn.

For ClearPoint’s own AI journey and that of the clients they work with, it is the understanding that AI can extend far beyond a technological upgrade, it represents a radical rethinking of how businesses operate and innovate. There is an important link between technological, business and even macro-economic transformation as ClearPoint Co-Founder Bain Hollister points out.
“The opportunity we have as a community in New Zealand and our place in the world is profound. I say that because previously, we haven’t had the mass and volume of labour of other countries. Where can you go to get 2,000 engineers to build you a system? That sort of scale is offshore. But technology comes along like this, which is just driving a truck through that kind of concept. I don’t need to go and find 2,000 engineers at the cheapest rate per hour. I can find a local firm in New Zealand that is AI-enabled, that can build me something with a few high-performing people and probably give me the same outcome. And that’s a pretty cool and optimistic place to be, both for the clients and for their end customers, but also for ourselves as a country.”

This is echoed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman who is expecting AI to help trigger the world’s first solo Unicorn within a few years. “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there’s this betting pool for the first year that there is a one-person billion-dollar company. Which would have been unimaginable without AI and now will happen.”

While the recent advances in AI have opened up new business models and an opportunity for sky-is-the-limit type scale, it’s also important to get the groundwork right.

ClearPoint’s approach with their clients focuses “on not only the impact of change but also building a culture of tangible exploration and leveraging the foundations of excellent software engineering practice.”

Hollister considers AI a fundamental change to the technology landscape that will both surface through our existing digital experiences in the short term and also profoundly change the way we work in the long run.

Initial demonstrations of the technology will tempt organisations to go tactical with AI but this might not always be the best approach. “It might seem like, ‘Let’s just roll out AI and we can optimise staff count’. But the reality is most enterprise clients are already wrestling with significant technology complexity. As the AI movement comes through with high Executive and Board expectations, an organisation’s ability to adapt rapidly on any sort of scale is very difficult. There’s a lot of groundwork and thinking to do.”

Hollister points out that this is compounded even more by a wave of change that is manifesting in several areas at the same time. “Every other week, you’ll see a feature pop up on whatever application that you might be using that has AI capability. It could be in your Microsoft 365, Google Workspace Suite or whatever it is that you’re using to create content. It could be in your operating system; it could be in the way that you’re navigating your maps.”

Although there is a potential for organisations to think about the data they have, what that capability might mean and how they could train up assistive technology to help their customers and their employees, Hollister points out the need to pull back a little bit before going forward. “There are quite a few steps to go through in terms of strategic thinking. And because it’s happened so quickly, the tech is already here. It’s good to go. It’s just waiting on us in terms of our strategy and leadership and the understanding of how we’re going to pick it up and deploy it, and where and for what reason and for whose benefit.”

This approach has also been a part of ClearPoint’s DNA over the years. With a history of working with clients across the spectrum of the New Zealand economy, their work has covered a wide gamut of business needs and technology solutions but a strategic overview always precedes execution.

An example of this is their work with wine producer Indevin. ClearPoint conducted a technology architecture review and design, addressing inefficiencies and optimising the future tech landscape to support Indevin’s growth and the integration of newly acquired assets like Villa Maria.

In the technological review conducted it was discovered during post-harvest workshops that 80% of their initial technological design was correct, allowing them to focus on refining the remaining 20% that needed adjustments.

“In the past, there had been a lot of time wasted on that 80%. This ClearPoint approach was much more efficient, saving us a lot of time.” Says Peter Terpstra, CTO, Indevin Group.

And while that strategic approach can save money and time it also helps to give a pathway through the midst of so much flux in terms of AI innovation. While the wave of change can be daunting, Malen Hurbuns, ClearPoint’s General Manager of Engineering suggests starting small is better than not starting at all as long as it is tied to the overall strategic direction of the organisation.

“Start with little experiments within the organisation, try building a small Gen AI application that solves a small problem, these can be quick to get outcomes and worst case you’ll learn along the way. Run them as experiments to see what the value is of what you do, and iterate on that. But sitting back and doing nothing is probably not the safest for now because this technology is moving at such a rapid pace.”

It’s also not just about technology; ClearPoint has worked to create an AI culture and works with its clients to do the same. “You need some strong leaders. People who are going to go, ‘Hey there’s this new thing out here, we need to at least have a look’. ” suggests Hurbuns.

“Adopting AI is not easy, adopting new technologies is never easy and if it was, everyone would be doing it. As a leader, you sometimes need to take a step back and look around at the innovations outside of your area and then decide if there is an opportunity to adapt your business.”

ClearPoint has also implemented “AI Mondays” where the team can get together and share discoveries, challenges and lessons. And while it’s important to be looking at the new tools coming through, again it’s also important to be connecting to strategy.

Hollister highlights the important link between an innovation culture and a learning culture. “Being able to stand back and abstract yourself, and actualise a bit is a key part of learning and getting a perspective on the field or the data. It’s important to try and get your personality out of the way and any sort of sense of ego because it’s a learning moment and no matter how well we’ve performed and how great we might have done, the learning is always in the friction of the bits that didn’t quite come right. Constantly looking at that performance and trying to do that in a way, which is clear-eyed and human-centric is key.”

“When we think about a problem, one of the first things we ask is if this is something that AI can help with. We need an AI-first mindset and to ask ourselves not just how we can use AI to help solve a problem, but actually can we use AI to avoid that problem altogether? We have to keep asking ourselves if we are thinking about this at a high enough level,” says Cleghorn.

An example of the potential of data and technology to help avoid problems is ClearPoint’s work with Waka Kotahi to explore building out Digital Twin capability to provide valuable insights into disaster-prone roads and also to plot routes for emergency vehicles. Further AI development with datasets against this sort of example showcases the implications not only for an organisation but also for the wider community.

Other areas of AI-powered problem solving that utilises data may include identifying potential disruptions in supply chain management by predicting demand and managing inventory levels or identifying potential security threats and alerting businesses to suspicious activity by continuously monitoring transactions, user behaviours, and other relevant data.

We have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of capability and often the discussion around AI implementation is about job replacement but ClearPoint has a particular focus on better quality outcomes for organisations and focuses on human value within that. Hurbuns suggests that AI-enabled hybrid teams are the way forward.

“There are no doubt people who don’t want to buy into it because they’re afraid that they are going to lose their jobs. And to an extent, some jobs might change. But in many more ways, this is about enabling humans to do more.”

From a software perspective, there have already been advancements in AI-generated coding, leaving many to speculate the end of the human coder but Hurbuns imagines a future where humans and AI sit side by side. “From the work that I’ve been doing and speaking to other engineers, I believe there is a need for an engineer – someone with the expertise and the strategy to be able to guide the AI. Sometimes AI is not going to work and you still need people who know how to write some specific code.”

Cleghorn suggests that if people don’t lean into it, they will get left behind. “If you’re thinking about how this is going to replace my job, you’re probably thinking the wrong way and it probably will replace your job. You need to think about it; how do I use these tools to bring myself up to a higher level?”

As ClearPoint helps to define New Zealand’s adoption of AI, it is an adoption focused on the power of AI as a tool for enhancing, rather than replacing, human capabilities.

ClearPoint’s own AI journey involves inspiring New Zealand businesses to take their own AI journeys and explore how AI can be harnessed to not only address current challenges but also to leverage and shape future opportunities for New Zealand to lead the world.

Find out more about ClearPoint’s AI services here

Featured Case Studies:

The road to innovation: How ClearPoint is helping Waka Kotahi move forward

Leveraging Modern Technologies to Optimise Future Harvests for Indevin