Free tools and guides
AI tools and guides for NZ businesses
Everything here is free and open. No email gate, no download form. Work through a guide, run the numbers on a task, or copy a use case straight into your own business.
Added to as new guides and tools go live. Checked 24 September 2026.
Blake HarknessFounder, Harkness AIStart here
Pick the one that matches your week
Six things, each built from work we have actually done for New Zealand businesses. The two quizzes take about a minute each and nothing is pre-selected for you. The calculator gives you a number to take to a meeting. The three hubs show the jobs AI is already doing, in plain words, with the catches named.
- 5-question quiz
Which Claude plan do you need?
Anthropic prices everything in US dollars, so it is hard to tell what you are really paying. Five questions, about a minute, and you get the plan that fits in New Zealand dollars with GST included, plus the thing to watch out for.
Start the quiz - 5-question quiz
The four levels of AI use
Most businesses can say they are using AI but not whether they are using it well. Five questions place where you actually sit, from asking it questions to running work on a schedule, and give you the one next step.
Start the quiz - Calculator
AI cost calculator
Put in how many people do a task, how much of their time it takes and what they earn. It works out what that task costs you a year, what it would cost with AI doing most of it, and the difference. No email, no sign-up.
Open the calculator - Guides
Claude and Xero
Which of the two Xero connectors to pick, how to set up Xero’s MCP server safely, and how to get Claude drafting invoices and finding the expenses you never coded. Written for owners, not developers.
Read the Xero guides - Use cases
AI for trades and construction
Real jobs we have handed to AI for NZ builders, contractors and trade businesses: finding and drafting tenders, tomorrow’s run sheet, chasing unanswered quotes, timesheets and the Monday debtor list.
See the trade use cases - Use cases
AI for content and social
The content system written down: one recording turned into a week of posts, on-brand designs in Canva, what the posting data actually shows, and how to be the business AI recommends.
See the content use cases
More to read
Longer write-ups, the jargon explained, and what the work looked like for other NZ businesses.
Want this set up in your business?
The guides are the do-it-yourself version. If you would rather it was done for you, we connect Claude to the tools your team already uses, then show them how to run it.
Talk to usPrefer to watch?
Every guide starts life as a video. The written versions live here; the walkthroughs are on the channel.
Watch on YouTubeLast updated 24 September 2026