Harkness AI has passed 50 paying New Zealand business clients, and this week the story made the national business press. NBR ran it on 10 October 2026, and the media release went out on Scoop the same day. On 12 October the TechDay network picked it up across four of its NZ titles: CFOtech, IT Brief, SecurityBrief and eCommerceNews.
NBR’s angle: a knowledge gap among firms hungry for AI-driven results is driving demand for a start-up a Christchurch engineer founded in 2025. Here are the numbers behind it, and how the work actually gets done.
What are the numbers?
- 50+ paying clients - businesses that have paid at least one invoice, across workshops, Claude setups, custom builds and support.
- Six figures in the first five months of FY27 - April to August 2026.
- Monthly revenue up more than fourfold since the start of the year.
- Bootstrapped - no outside investment, and profitable every month this financial year.
- Less than two years out of uni - I finished mechatronics engineering at Massey at the end of 2024.
Who are the clients?
They span construction, retail, security, tourism and technology. Named in the coverage: global wellness brand Shakti Mat, Christchurch civil contractor Maugers Contracting, Trap and Trigger, 2Secure Security, Captivate Technology, Cohesive and the Bed & Breakfast Association of New Zealand.
- Shakti Mat sells in six international markets. We built six custom connectors in under four weeks, so the team asks one AI chat across Shopify, Xero, stock, marketing and email.
- Maugers Contracting had a construction programme that took around 20 hours to put together. Now it is generated and just needs a proofread. A year of staff timesheets was checked in one pass, and a shared staff and plant planner took 10 minutes to build.
More detail on these projects is in the case studies.
What does Harkness AI actually do?
Most Kiwi businesses don’t need another AI tool. They need AI plugged into the systems they already run, like Xero and their job software, and someone to show the team how to use it. That’s the job: Claude set up for the business, custom integrations, workshops and ongoing support.
I’m an engineer, not a consultant. I’d rather build the thing and teach your team to use it than hand over a strategy deck. If the team isn’t using it on Monday, it doesn’t matter how good the build was.
I also build with AI, so work that used to take months takes weeks. I quote a fixed price, so the client gets the speed, not a bigger bill.
What does this mean for graduates?
Everyone’s worried AI will take graduate jobs. I graduated into it and went the other way - I just started building with it. The 150+ free videos I’ve published have done more for me than a CV would have.
AI can write code now. The person who can sit with a business owner and work out what actually needs fixing is the one getting hired. My advice: don’t wait for a grad job to give you permission. Find a real problem at a real business and build something for it this week. That’s also why I started Young Kiwis in AI, now more than 350 members.
What else is going on?
Earlier this year I joined the AI Forum New Zealand delegation to China, looking at how Chinese businesses are adopting AI. I sit on the Engineering New Zealand AI Advisory Committee, and I’m a finalist for Rising AI Star at the 2026 Aotearoa AI Awards.
Where to read the coverage
- IT Brief (TechDay) - Harkness AI tops 50 clients as revenue surges in NZ (12 October 2026)
- CFOtech (TechDay) - Harkness AI tops 50 clients as revenue surges in NZ (12 October 2026)
- SecurityBrief (TechDay) - Harkness AI tops 50 clients as revenue surges in NZ (12 October 2026)
- eCommerceNews (TechDay) - Harkness AI tops 50 clients as revenue surges in NZ (12 October 2026)
- NBR - Recent grad’s AI consultancy hits six-figure revenue (10 October 2026)
- Scoop - Harkness AI hits 50 clients as graduate founder builds a business for the future (10 October 2026)
