Through March, more than 1,000 of our people stepped away from day-to-day delivery to immerse themselves in Elevate 2.0. This is the next phase of our organisation-wide AI capability programme, focused on how work actually changes when AI shapes what we do, and what that means for the experience our customers have with us.
Twelve months ago, Elevate 1.0 focused on building foundational capability at scale and moving people from curiosity into early adoption. Elevate 2.0 reflects the next stage of that shift: from adoption to applied capability and putting AI to work in the context of real work, real decisions and real operating pressure.
At One NZ, we talk about being “AI first, human where it matters most”. This means being clear about where AI improves speed, quality, consistency, or effort. It also means being just as deliberate about where judgement, human connection and trust matter. Most roles now sit in that overlap, and this is especially true of leaders.
We brought this to life for 245 of our leaders, kicking off Elevate 2.0 with our AI Leadership Masterclass. Our leaders were challenged to think differently about the need to get much closer to the signals and translate that into better outcomes for our customers.
For our people, Elevate Learning Labs delivered hands-on sessions using Copilot and ChatGPT. The questions people brought were practical and immediate. How does this improve the quality of the work? Where does it remove duplication, reduce friction or replace low value activity? Where does human judgement still need to stay close?
Delivered in partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft, and tomoro.ai, the labs gave our people the opportunity to learn from the teams working at the leading edge of these technologies. This shifted the focus from the tools to the how they stand up inside the demands of real work.
Teams used AI tools to tighten creative briefs, so they land right the first time, reduce the effort behind project reporting, and improve how service knowledge is created and maintained. These were practical changes, led by the people doing the work, that translate into real outcomes.
A year on from our first Elevate event, it is clearer than ever that AI adoption on its own does not change performance. The shift comes when routine work is handled differently and time is redirected. That shows up in small but important ways: issues resolved without customers needing to follow up, the network holding steady when demand peaks, and risks addressed earlier before they become visible.
That’s where this connects to what matters most to our customers.
Not in the technology itself, but in the consistency of the experience it supports.
