Tuesday, October 27, 2026
There's one role almost every SME owner has avoided filling for a year or more — while quietly doing it themselves instead. Here's the Who Not How framework, and the three-step test that makes the hire obvious.
Short answer: If you run a small New Zealand business and have not started with AI, you are not behind the pack. You are with most of the smallest firms. Start with one repetitive job that sits next to your real constraint, track one number for 30 days, and keep the decisions that define your business for yourself.
You know AI exists. You have probably tried it once or twice. What you want to know is where it earns its keep in a business your size, without a month of fiddling. This guide uses published New Zealand data and a four-question test so you can choose in an afternoon. It is one of the guides in our hub on how a small business can use AI to grow.
The MYOB Business Monitor surveyed 1,026 New Zealand owners, managers and directors, and IT Brief NZ reported the results on 4 August 2026. It found 36% of NZ SMEs are proactively using AI, up from 32% a year earlier. The gap by size is the part worth your attention: 30% of businesses with one to five employees use AI, against 64% of businesses with 20 or more staff.
Among the businesses that use it, the most common jobs are social media and marketing content (38%), marketing copywriting and press releases (28%), technical documents, reports and training materials (26%), and market, trend and risk analysis (25%).
Awareness is not what is holding small firms back. Research for MBIE, based on 500 SMEs surveyed in April 2025, found 94% were aware of at least one AI tool, and that lack of knowledge, uncertainty about where to start, and concerns about accuracy, privacy, security and trust were slowing adoption. In other words, the smallest firms know AI is out there. They are missing a clear first step.
A 25-person firm can give one person the job of working out AI. In a team of three, that person is you, between quotes, customers and the phone. So the first AI job has to be small, checkable and close to the money, or it will not survive the week. We have written more on this in The AI size gap.
The most common mistake is starting where the tool is most exciting rather than where the business is most stuck. AI speeds up whatever you point it at. Point it at the wrong thing and you get a faster version of the same problem.
In his Making It Happen training, Kevin D'Ambros-Smith tells of a mortgage brokerage that mapped its customer journey and found it was wasting evenings visiting clients who had no payslips or a poor credit history. By moving document upload and a short questionnaire online before the meeting was booked, the share of worthwhile meetings went from about 50% to about 95%. The lesson is that technology pays where a process leaks, so find the leak first.
He also tells of a client who received an abusive complaint, used ChatGPT to draft a calm reply, and had the customer apologise. A person still read, adjusted and sent it. His line to owners: AI is not going to take your job, the person using AI is.
Run each candidate job through these four questions. If it fails two, leave it with a person for now.
Then match the leak to the job. If enquiries wait days for a reply, start with drafting first replies and follow-ups. If quotes are slow, start with drafting quote cover notes from your own past quotes. If the books pile up, start with summarising the month in plain English. If you stare at a blank page, start with first drafts of posts and emails in your own words. For the longer version of this test, see The four questions that decide what AI actually saves you time on.
Keep the decisions that define the business: who you serve, what you charge, who you hire and what you stand for. MBIE's research lists accuracy, privacy, security and trust as real concerns, and they are fair ones. Read the data terms of any tool before customer details go in, and remove names and account numbers when in doubt. If you are not sure whether your constraint is a leak AI can help with, score the eight links in our guide to finding your real constraint first.
Once a job is working, build the five-hours-a-week habit, and if you want a group of owners or your team to learn this together, see AI workshops and keynotes with Kevin.
The MYOB Business Monitor, reported on 4 August 2026, found 36% of NZ SMEs proactively use AI, up from 32% a year earlier. Use is lower in the smallest firms: 30% of businesses with one to five employees, against 64% of those with 20 or more.
Start with a repetitive, low-risk job next to revenue, such as drafting customer follow-up, quote cover notes or first drafts of marketing, and keep a person checking every output.
Check the tool's data terms first, and avoid pasting personal details you would not be comfortable having stored. MBIE's research lists privacy and security among the concerns slowing adoption.
Not to begin. Many owners start with a general-purpose assistant and pay for more only after one job has moved a number you care about.
Yes. Kevin offers a free 30-minute call, online or in Auckland, to work out which link in your business to fix first and whether AI belongs in the answer.
Walk away with one job, one number and a clear next step. Book a free 30-minute call with Kevin.
Prefer to read first? Join The Inside Track for practical growth ideas twice a week.
Updated 29 October 2026. Kevin D'Ambros-Smith is a business coach and advisor who has coached 200+ businesses one-on-one across 30+ industries. Kevin and The Simple-Growth Team
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