An image of a professional presenting data on a laptop, with two colleagues watching attentively. Overlaid with an abstract light blue pattern.

AI for productivity

Increase efficiency with artificial intelligence-driven automation solutions to augment human capabilities.

Unlock transformative growth with AI-powered productivity.

We empower organisations to confidently use AI, equipping your teams with the skills and tools needed to create practical, responsible, and locally relevant solutions. This isn’t just about incremental gains — it’s about transforming how your organisation works by combining human expertise with advanced AI innovation. The result? Smarter decision-making, improved efficiency, and greater value delivered across every part of your operations through AI-driven automation that genuinely enhances human capability.

Realising AI’s productivity potential

Despite record investment in AI, many organisations are still only scratching the surface of its productivity benefits. Our latest research highlights this gap: while most organisations are increasing their AI spend, only a small fraction—often less than 10–15% — have achieved widespread, mature AI adoption across the business. This is especially surprising given that smart tools and AI assistants are now seen as one of the most significant productivity boosts since office software.

Many AI initiatives fall short due to poor integration, limited change management, and a reliance on disconnected tools. We cut through the hype with practical solutions that solve real problems and deliver measurable outcomes.

Our holistic approach starts with a Productivity Impact Assessment to identify friction points and quantify value. We validate the return-on-investment (ROI) through targeted pilots and scale success using secure, integrated MLOps practices — ensuring your AI delivers lasting impact aligned to your business goals.

A smiling professional working with enhanced productivity on a laptop in a modern office

The common productivity challenges that AI can solve for your organisation

We use AI to address the everyday bottlenecks that slow teams down by streamlining tasks, reducing friction, and helping people focus on what really drives performance.

  • Meeting inefficiency

    Professionals spend around 35% of the workweek in meetings—over 14 hours. AI can help streamline this through smarter scheduling, automatic summaries, and enabling asynchronous collaboration.
  • Information overload and discovery

    Searching across multiple systems wastes time. AI-powered search and knowledge tools can instantly surface relevant insights.
  • Repetitive manual tasks and data processing

    Routine tasks like data entry and report generation are time-consuming and error prone. AI and intelligent automation can handle them accurately and at scale.
  • Suboptimal decision-making and forecasting

    When decisions rely on incomplete data or slow analysis, outcomes suffer. AI models can offer faster, data-backed recommendations.
  • Inefficient customer service and support

    Routine enquiries can overwhelm support teams. Conversational AI handles common requests 24/7, improving customer response times and freeing up your people for more complex queries.
  • Slow content creation

    Creating tailored content takes time. Generative AI speeds up the process, generating drafts and refining messages across marketing, sales, and internal use.
  • Inconsistent onboarding and employee training

    Creating tailored content takes time. Generative AI speeds up the process, generating drafts and refining messages across marketing, sales, and internal use.
  • Impersonal experiences

    Generic, one-size-fits-all messaging can miss the mark. AI can understand individual preferences, behaviours, and needs, so teams can craft the right message, at the right moment, in the right tone.

Stay ahead of the curve by driving productivity with AI

We develop AI solutions to remove friction, automate routine work, and unlock insights so your teams can move faster, focus better, and stay ahead.

  • Operational excellence

    Transform your operations through AI-driven efficiency and intelligent automation. From streamlined processes to predictive insights, create smarter operations that reduce costs and improve quality.
  • Activate workforce potential

    Empower your people with AI tools that enhance their capabilities. Re-image your workforce by enabling smarter decisions, automate routine tasks, and free your teams to focus on strategic work that drives business growth.
  • Optimise business function

    Deliver specialised insights, automate key processes, and accelerate performance across departments with tailored AI solutions like personal AI assistants, intelligent agents and smart collaboration tools.
  • Integrated ecosystem

    Connect your people, processes, and insights through integrated AI solutions. Create seamless workflows and enable data-driven decisions across your organisation.

Explore AI

We approach AI by understanding the challenges that your organisation is facing and the outcomes you are working towards. You can choose to focus on one approach at a time – or all of them can work in harmony.

  • Artificial intelligence

    Discover how we can help you harness AI confidently by creating practical, responsible, and locally relevant solutions. Harness AI confidently
  • AI foundations

    Lay the crucial groundwork for impactful AI adoption by cultivating a holistic foundation of data excellence, clear governance, and enabling technology. Set your AI foundations
  • AI insights

    Read the latest AI insights from market-leading research and reports. Explore our insights

Explore how Datacom can help drive business success with AI

AI has evolved from simple analytical tools that identified patterns in data, to advanced systems than can understand, create and make autonomous decisions. We help organisations build the right AI capabilities to effectively meet your organisational needs now and in the future.

Precision-built AI solutions

Unleash AI’s full potential with models tailored specifically to your business.

We go beyond generic, out-of-the-box solutions by developing AI that understands your unique data, challenges, and operational needs. By focusing on precision and accuracy, we create powerful AI-driven strategies that solve your specific problems and give you a competitive advantage that one-size-fits-all approaches simply can’t match. 

Happy professionals working at their computers using AI solutions

Modernise business apps

Keep your applications fast, secure, and efficient by modernising outdated platforms with AI-powered tools and scalable cloud technologies.

We help organisations upgrade their core applications to reduce technical debt, automate routine processes, and improve user experience. Our approach ensures your apps are easier to maintain, more secure, and built for long-term success — supporting compliance, continuity, and cost savings.  

Three smiling professionals looking looking at an app on a tablet

Talk to us about your AI journey

Our team of AI consultants can provide you with structured assessment frameworks, governance models, and validation approaches to help you set up AI the right way — ensuring clarity, confidence, and early wins through proof-of-concept implementation.

A smiling AI expert holds a laptop in a room with a large screen displaying system architecture.
Our AI partners in change

Why choose Datacom to help with your AI journey?

We uniquely combine deep local expertise with global AI capabilities to deliver practical, human-enabled AI solutions that create tangible business value. We help you find practical ways of working with AI to inspire your team to decide on what they should focus on and what they want to offload to help drive innovation and business growth.

When you choose Datacom, you’re making a choice that keeps your enterprise AI solutions local and safe.

Local context + scale

We understand your local business environment while leveraging enterprise-grade AI capabilities.

End-to-end capability

From strategy through to implementation, we provide comprehensive AI services backed by decades of technology expertise.

Proven approach

Our AI journey takes you from understanding to acceleration, ensuring sustainable AI adoption.

Human-first

We focus on empowering people with AI, not replacing them - ensuring solutions that enhance rather than disrupt your workforce.

Responsible and secure

Together with our customers, we're shaping a future where AI augments human potential while delivering measurable business outcomes.

Discover more

Justin Gray: We need to accelerate AI uptake responsibly

AI is no silver bullet, but Datacom MD Justin Gray says it has a meaningful role to play in tackling New Zealand’s (...)

Use cases and ‘safe tools’ a smart starting point for AI

Organisations struggling with where to start on their AI journey need to look at use cases first, says Datacom’s MD (...)

Ten tips to get the most out of Microsof Copilot

We asked Hilary Walton for her insights on Copilot and how she’s been using it to supercharge her productivity.

AI's digital revolution: transforming information

Michael Bradley is focused on revolutionising the way we process information, by using AI to transcend the realm (...)

AI and Manufacturing: Why AI is not an either-or decision

What opportunities does AI hold for manufacturing? We asked our AD of Industry and AD of Transformational Engagements (...)

How to put AI at the heart of business growth

AI is taking off now – not in five years’ time. Have you prepared your AI flight plan?

AI Attitudes research report

New research into the attitudes of business leaders towards AI adoption has revealed valuable insights.

Why every business needs an AI strategy

Datacom's Director of AI Lou Compagnone explains why every organisation needs an AI strategy.

The revolutionary role AI is playing in app modernisation

Datacom is pioneering a radical shift in enterprise software modernisation to rebuild legacy systems at speed and scale.

Using conversational AI to better serve communities

How can councils leveraging virtual assistants and conversational AI to make it easier for people to get they need?

Frequently asked questions

What productivity gains can businesses expect from AI and how quickly is ROI realised?

AI enables measurable gains in efficiency, speed, and accuracy by automating repetitive tasks and streamlining processes. Many organisations begin to see return on investment from initial pilot projects within weeks or months, especially when targeting high-impact areas. The timeline for ROI depends on the complexity of the solution, but early wins from AI deployments often build momentum for broader transformation.

Will AI replace jobs or help employees work more effectively?

AI is designed to enhance—not replace—your workforce. It handles time-consuming, repetitive tasks so that employees can focus on higher-value, creative, and strategic work. This approach increases job satisfaction, reduces burnout, and creates a more engaged, empowered team. The goal is to amplify human capability through intelligent assistance, not eliminate it.

How disruptive is it to implement AI into existing workflows and systems?

AI integration can be low-disruption when approached strategically. By starting with a productivity impact assessment and implementing AI in iterative pilot programs, businesses can realise early benefits with minimal operational risk. Integration with existing IT environments is managed through modern MLOps practices to ensure reliable deployment and performance across your systems.

What are the best use cases for improving productivity with AI?

AI drives the most value in areas where manual effort, delays, or inefficiencies are common. High-impact use cases include automating data entry, improving document search, generating content faster, supporting decision-making, and enhancing communication or customer service workflows. Identifying these opportunities early helps prioritise projects that deliver immediate productivity improvements.

What data is needed for AI productivity tools to work effectively?

AI relies on quality data—both structured (like spreadsheets or databases) and unstructured (such as emails, documents, or transcripts). Success depends on having accessible, secure, and well-governed data. This includes implementing data governance, pipelines, and privacy controls. Clean and organised data ensures that AI models generate relevant, accurate outputs and can be scaled reliably across your organisation.

How do we ensure our AI tools are ethical, trusted, and used responsibly?

Responsible AI starts with clear governance. That includes setting fairness, transparency, and accountability principles for how AI is used. We help organisations mitigate bias, maintain human oversight, and comply with privacy standards to ensure AI is trusted by employees and stakeholders. Communicating AI’s role clearly also supports cultural adoption and reduces fear or resistance.

Can AI productivity tools adapt to our specific business processes and scale with us?

Yes. AI solutions are most effective when tailored to your unique workflows, systems, and data. We customise models—including Large Language Models (LLMs)—to suit your environment and business goals. With scalable infrastructure and strong deployment practices, AI can expand from pilot programs to enterprise-wide adoption, supporting growth and change as your organisation evolves.