{"id":123900,"date":"2025-11-08T02:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123900\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T02:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:25:07","slug":"deloitte-top-200-ceos-urged-to-lead-ai-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123900\/","title":{"rendered":"Deloitte Top 200: CEOs urged to lead AI transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sky Network Television\u2019s Sophie Moloney, Xero\u2019s Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and last year\u2019s winner, Miles Hurrell of Fonterra<\/a>, have been named as finalists in the category.<\/p>\n

The recent Mood of the Boardroom survey found New Zealand chief executives were becoming gradually more optimistic, with a clear majority expecting higher revenue and profit from their businesses over the next 12 months \u2013 an improvement on last year\u2019s sentiment.<\/p>\n

When it came to capital expenditure, 43% of respondents said they were planning to invest more, with a major focus on AI.<\/p>\n

Tulp says for many chief executives, this means doubling down on two critical pillars: maintaining a resilient organisational culture and robust decision-making. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most successful organisations I work with are purpose-driven, adaptable and embrace change. I also believe economic uncertainty should be a reason to speed up \u2013 not slow down \u2013 decision-making. Securing New Zealand\u2019s future as a dynamic, knowledge-based economy relies on strong technology leadership as we navigate this new era of AI.” <\/p>\n

ServiceNow\u2019s latest research shows risk and governance are make-or-break for AI adoption. The number one barrier to realising AI value cited by leaders was data security.<\/p>\n

Ethics, upskilling and disruption<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping the workplace, automating routine tasks and freeing employees to focus on higher-value work. <\/p>\n

\u201cGenAI is replacing thousands of hours of human effort,\u201d Tulp says, \u201cand it\u2019s reshaping entire job roles and professions in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the clock is ticking. ServiceNow\u2019s research showed organisations have just five years to deploy an effective AI strategy that delivers financial and productivity gains while safeguarding employee growth through upskilling. <\/p>\n

\"ServiceNowServiceNow NZ country manager Kate Tulp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you compare Kiwi organisations to others globally, we\u2019re sitting on a superpower,\u201d Tulp says. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s traditionally risk-averse culture and strong governance frameworks are a strength when it comes to navigating this once-in-a-generation technological shift. We\u2019ve already got great governance. The guardrails, legislation, regulation, privacy laws are in place \u2013 this gives leaders certainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cCEOs should be thinking how they can disrupt their own business in a really positive way that generates greater productivity, greater profit and enables scaling up without risk.\u201d <\/p>\n

AI adoption: From pilots to execution<\/p>\n

Globally, organisations are struggling to keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI. <\/p>\n

\u201cBreakthrough technologies like agentic AI are advancing so rapidly, businesses are falling behind,\u201d Tulp warns. <\/p>\n

In New Zealand, AI maturity is declining year on year, largely because teams are mired in pilot programmes rather than scaling enterprise-grade implementations.<\/p>\n

Tulp says the solution is to shift from trial mode to execution. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now a market-driven, board-driven imperative to push ahead with transformation,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Culture and data remain central to this shift. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe more leaders embrace new technologies, the more we\u2019ll see highly profitable, investment-ready Kiwi enterprises which are also great places to work, and even better partners to do business with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing talent shortages<\/p>\n

Another big issue for chief executives is talent shortages \u2013 particularly in leadership, digital and technical roles.<\/p>\n

Tulp says New Zealand\u2019s productivity ambitions cannot be met by human labour alone. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely depending on automation and AI to free up workforce capacity. And while the global AI race is accelerating demand for specific technical expertise, we\u2019re also seeing enormous growth in demand for critical soft skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

As machines take over repetitive tasks, employees are being asked to innovate, problem-solve and amplify their most human qualities. <\/p>\n

Tulp says the onus is on employers to prepare their people for this shift by fostering a culture of experimentation and investing in soft-skills development.<\/p>\n

The Deloitte Top 200 Awards were established in 1990 and are held annually to recognise and applaud outstanding individual and management team performances among New Zealand\u2019s largest companies and trading organisations.<\/p>\n

All the Deloitte Top 200 winners will be revealed at a gala event on Thursday, December 4. The event will be live-streamed from 7pm on the Herald website.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Deloitte Top 200 CEO of the Year finalists – Sponsored by ServiceNow<\/p>\n

\"SkySky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney.\"FonterraFonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell. Photo \/ Dean Purcell\"XeroXero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy. Photo \/ Xero<\/p>\n

Full list of the 2025 Deloitte Top 200 Awards finalists:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Amazon Web Services Company of the Year: Fonterra, Rocket Lab and The a2 Milk Company.<\/p>\n

\u2022 ServiceNow Chief Executive of the Year: Sophie Moloney (Sky TV), Miles Hurrell (Fonterra) and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (Xero).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tax Traders Chief Financial Officer of the Year: David Muscat (The a2 Milk Company), Richard Thomson (Air New Zealand) and Simon Kebbell (Port of Tauranga).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Forsyth Barr Chairperson of the Year: James Miller, Peter McBride and Pip Greenwood.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sustainability Leadership: BNZ, Goodman Property Trust and Precinct Properties.<\/p>\n

\u2022 2degrees Best Growth Strategy: Contact Energy, F&P Healthcare and Xero.<\/p>\n

\u2022 BusinessNZ Most Improved Performance: Port of Tauranga, Sanford and Tower.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Snowflake Young Executive of the Year: Anna Mitchell (Chorus), Boyd Scirkovich (Ng\u0101ti Toa Rangatira) and Kate Boyer (Air New Zealand)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Diversity and Inclusion Leadership: AIA, Clarus and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hobson Leavy Visionary Leader: To be announced on the night.<\/p>\n

The winners will be announced on Thursday, December 4.<\/p>\n

– This was produced in partnership with the Deloitte Top 200 Awards and sponsors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky Network Television\u2019s Sophie Moloney, Xero\u2019s Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and last year\u2019s winner, Miles Hurrell of Fonterra, have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[78777,365,8239,363,364,682,138,64375,16394,12974,3937,2035,10668,6440,4377,7240,22643,130,111,139,69,8564,1435,54035,145,131,61,3010,20563,11226,22390,2963],"class_list":["post-123900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-78777","tag-ai","tag-american","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-being","tag-business","tag-ceos","tag-challenged","tag-change","tag-chief","tag-deloitte","tag-economic","tag-ever","tag-executives","tag-lead","tag-marked","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-protectionism","tag-rapid","tag-technological","tag-technology","tag-than","tag-to","tag-top","tag-transformation","tag-urged","tag-volatility","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}