{"id":621112,"date":"2026-10-05T09:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621112\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:12:11","slug":"artificial-intelligence-bunnings-launches-ai-assistant-buddy-for-kiwi-diyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621112\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence: Bunnings launches AI assistant Buddy for Kiwi DIYers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">Bunnings New Zealand general manager Melissa Haines said Buddy was designed to make it easier for customers to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cKiwis are renowned for rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into home improvement projects and Buddy is designed to make that a little easier,\u201d Haines said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Bunnings has launched Buddy in New Zealand, its AI-powered shopping assistant. Photo \/ Martin Keep\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Bunnings has launched Buddy in New Zealand, its AI-powered shopping assistant. Photo \/ Martin Keep<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhether you\u2019re planning a weekend project, refreshing the garden or finally tackling the shed clean-out that\u2019s been on the to-do list for months, Buddy provides practical advice, inspiration and product recommendations to help get projects underway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">She said Bunnings was using artificial intelligence (AI) to complement the advice its staff provided each day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">Buddy is available through the Bunnings New Zealand website and app, following its recent rollout in Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">The assistant was built using Google Cloud\u2019s Gemini technology and draws much of its guidance from Bunnings\u2019 existing project and how-to material.<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">Bunnings said Buddy had guardrails and consent-based interactions intended to ensure the guidance it provided was relevant and responsible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"RteWPFVmeByCaDvyM\" style=\"display:none\">Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bunnings New Zealand general manager Melissa Haines said Buddy was designed to make it easier for customers to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,9556,363,364,2731,144745,52297,122106,305707,2082,8589,13800,9557,194,1739,19133,93712,111,139,69,660,9979,145,6305],"class_list":["post-621112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-assistant","tag-buddy","tag-bunnings","tag-deck","tag-diyers","tag-for","tag-garden","tag-giving","tag-intelligence","tag-kiwi","tag-launches","tag-looking","tag-makeover","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-planning","tag-right","tag-technology","tag-tool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621112","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=621112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}