The Ultimate Guide to AI Agents
A curated Kiwi edition of TechDay news, analysis, interviews, reviews, job moves, and related resources for AI Agents (Agentic AI).
What to know about AI Agents
AI agents represent a transformative area within artificial intelligence, focusing on autonomous or semi-autonomous systems capable of performing complex tasks and making decisions to enhance business operations and personal productivity.
Our recent stories highlight how AI agents are rapidly evolving across sectors—from cybersecurity and data management to customer experience and enterprise automation. Companies are integrating AI agents to improve efficiency, drive innovation, and manage security risks in increasingly sophisticated ways.
By exploring these developments, readers can gain insights into the potential benefits, emerging applications, and challenges associated with AI agent deployment. Whether you're interested in how AI agents enhance software development, automate workflows, or secure enterprise environments, this tag offers a comprehensive look at this dynamic and impactful technology.
Kiwi AI Agents News
Regional stories with direct local relevance
NZ firms need better systems before scaling AI, Reframr
Only 2% of New Zealand organisations see themselves as AI teamwork leaders, as most spending still favours technology over people.
Halter's Clank AI cuts engineering time in farm tech
Farming customers could see faster fixes as the system now handles alert triage and code changes, saving more than 215 engineering hours.
New Zealand firms split on AI as strategy gap widens
Only 15% of New Zealand businesses have an AI strategy, leaving most unable to measure returns or prepare for the next wave of tools.
Explainer: Why is everyone talking about AI and the end of the world?
Calls for tighter AI safeguards have intensified after warnings the technology could outpace human control and threaten jobs, security and markets.
AI extinction is only one way the future is frightening
Fears are mounting that unchecked AI could unleash cyberattacks, market shocks and job losses long before any extinction event.
OpenAI says Kiwis use ChatGPT to save hours weekly
New Zealand users are saving hours a week with ChatGPT, as the tool is used for work, budgets, health checks and trip planning.
Analyst Insights
Research and market analysis connected to AI Agents
BeyondTrust: Agentic AI is an 'old new' identity problem
NiCE named Gartner CCaaS leader as AI revenue jumps
Broadridge holds third in IDC FinTech Rankings again
Hack The Box launches AI range for enterprise security teams
The Hidden Cost of Supply Chain Complexity
Featured News
Scaling AI means reinventing how work gets done
The shift could reshape hiring, audits and pay as firms move from AI pilots to automated workflows that rely on new guardrails.
Workday is a Fortune 500 startup reborn for the AI era
Its AI-first overhaul has cut layers, sped product cycles and left the company betting that startup-style speed can still serve Fortune 500 customers.
UST: Businesses must rethink how AI returns are measured
Australian firms risk spending increasing resources on AI pilots that ultimately fail to prove gains in revenue, efficiency or customer service.
Celonis banking head: Banks want proof before scaling agents
Celonis argues frontier AI models are too generic for regulated banking, urging firms to weigh cost, risk and process gains before scaling deployments.
Interview: Cloudera says AI agents reshape zero trust
Enterprises must update identity controls as software agents generate more requests and need tightly time-limited access to sensitive systems.
Zscaler takes zero trust beyond the corporate network
Critical infrastructure operators are using cellular links to secure distributed assets as outages and spoofing raise the stakes for resilience.
Workiva: The secret compliance and reporting arms race
Driven by improved tooling, finance teams are meeting higher standards as regulators and analysts scrutinise disclosures faster.
Filigran: Does your CISO know enough?
CISOs are under pressure to answer boardroom questions on exposure in minutes, as Filigran pushes CTEM and open-source validation tools.
Exclusive: ABBYY says AI build costs will drive buying
Enterprises could cut AI spend by up to 80% by shifting document workflows away from custom builds and into standard platforms.
Exclusive: ABBYY brings zero-shot document AI to Vantage
Enterprises can now extract data from unseen document types without templates, as ABBYY rolls out zero-shot capabilities in Vantage.
Interview: Cloudera bets on hybrid AI growth in JAPAC
Banks and large enterprises in Asia-Pacific are rethinking cloud-first AI plans as costs, sovereignty and regulation favour hybrid deployments.
AI transforms CX to go beyond the chatbot
Consumers now expect faster, more automated support as AI agents handle complex customer journeys, though many firms still struggle to prove ROI.
Open source is powering the next generation of frontier AI
Rising inference demand and custom hardware needs are pushing AI infrastructure beyond standard cloud setups, boosting open source tools.
Governance controls are crucial for AI adoption and modernisation
Trusted partners and tighter guardrails are becoming essential as AI agents expand the attack surface and put data sovereignty on the line.
Exclusive: Cloudera builds Hadoop-free future platform
Existing customers get six years of support as Cloudera shifts new AI and analytics workloads to a Hadoop-free platform due in November.
Mimecast CEO: Agentic AI threat novel but not entirely new
Hidden AI risks are already widespread in workplaces, with Mimecast saying users are driving shadow tools and most exposure still starts with people.
Rimini Street offers AI magic without the forced ERP migration
CIOs can keep existing ERP systems and still adopt agentic AI, as Rimini Street pitches a cheaper path away from vendor-led migrations.
Customers at the centre of Adobe's new AI evangelist role
Adobe is using the post to help customers navigate AI adoption while feeding regional priorities back into its global product strategy.
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Apple's Unified Memory powers Kiraa AI's rapid automation
Australian firms can speed month-end processing from days to an hour by running Kiraa AI on Macs instead of costly cloud servers.
Jamf launches AI Governance to enhance visibility, security
IT teams can now track AI models on Apple fleets to curb data leaks and token spend as businesses wrestle with shadow AI.
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AI models expose new attack surfaces through misconfiguration
Misconfigured models are giving attackers a fresh route into cloud systems, raising the risk of data theft and service compromise.
Zendesk's outcome-based pricing balances AI with human touch
Businesses will pay only for closed support cases under Zendesk's new model, as the software group ties AI automation to human fallback.
AI will fade, says Dell Technologies' ephemeral Chief AI Officer
Dell says agentic AI should shift routine tasks below the machine line, freeing staff for expert work while making the role temporary.
Schrodinger's ERP both dead and alive, says Rimini Street
Businesses can avoid costly ERP rip-and-replace projects by layering AI and automation onto existing systems, Rimini Street says.
ClickHouse customer base soars on back of AI demand
AI agents are driving a sharp rise in demand for the real-time data platform, which added 1000 customers early in 2026 to top 4000.
Reviews
Expert Columns
Shadow AI Is Creating an Unmanaged Identity Crisis Across APAC
It's time to embrace our robot overlords
Data Governance in the AI Era: Why One-Off Projects Fail
AI in Retail is Only as Good as its Data Foundation
AI isn't the problem, Australia's natural resources industry needs business orchestration
Building Infrastructure for an AI World in Motion
Three technology myths CIOs should stop believing
The next eCommerce interface may not be a screen
In the AI era, channel value is being redefined
Stop saying AI hacked the system
Interviews
Interviews and video coverage from the networkRecent AI Agents News
ABBYY launches PHOENIX Plus for document automation
Enterprises can now add generative AI to Vantage workflows as ABBYY targets harder-to-read documents while keeping data within its hosted environment.
Functionize launches MCP server for AI coding agents
Developers can now check AI-generated code against live applications without leaving their chat tools, as Functionize ties testing into Claude Code and Copilot.
Reco joins Microsoft Pegasus programme for AI agent security
Businesses using Microsoft software are facing sharper oversight of AI agents, as Reco gains access to enterprise sales channels through Pegasus.
SUSE unveils sovereign AI platform with NVIDIA tie-up
Enterprises will be able to keep AI agents and proprietary data inside their own infrastructure under the new SUSE-NVIDIA sovereign AI stack.
BeyondTrust launches AI agent security on Pathfinder
The launch follows research showing AI coding agents can issue millions of commands and reach dozens of external services on enterprise endpoints.
Securonix launches behavioural analytics for AI threats
With AI agents widening the attack surface, security teams need to spot abnormal activity across human and machine users before damage is done.
Darwinium adds AI agent fraud checks across journeys
Fraud teams may struggle to spot AI-driven scams and agent-led abuse as Darwinium moves to assess intent across entire digital journeys.
Palo Alto Networks launches Cortex XDR One for AI agents
Businesses adopting AI agents now face new endpoint risks, which Palo Alto Networks says its Cortex XDR One platform is built to contain.
Progress adds Teams app & Smart Agent to RAG platform
The update lets employees get source-cited AI answers in Teams and reduces the need for custom orchestration across business systems.
Riskified launches AI agent identity checks for merchants
Merchants could face fresh refund fraud and account-takeover risks as consumer AI assistants start handling shopping and support requests.
LocalStack launches public beta for Azure developers
Software teams can now test Azure code locally, cutting provisioning delays, reducing cloud spend and easing security concerns around live credentials.
Gainsight shifts to value-based pricing as AI grows
Customers will pay according to revenue and accounts managed, as Gainsight drops seat-based charging for its customer success software next year.
Nvidia & Microsoft unveil AI agents for Windows PCs
The move could keep AI work on-device, as Microsoft adds security controls for agents while Nvidia brings its chips to Windows PCs.
Sprinklr brings customer feedback AI tools to Gemini
Gemini Enterprise users can analyse surveys, reviews and social posts without leaving their existing workflows, as Sprinklr expands access to its feedback tools.
Allvue adds agentic AI tools for private markets platform
Private markets firms can now link Claude and ChatGPT to Allvue data and workflows, cutting manual processing across credit and fund administration.
Dell expands AI Factory to push agentic AI on-site
Adoption has climbed to more than 6,500 customers as businesses shift from AI pilots to on-premise production and weigh rising costs.
ActiveViam partners Databricks on real-time risk analytics
Banks can now run repeatable risk calculations inside Databricks without moving data out, keeping audit trails and governance controls intact.
Meta's Muse AI agent seen in half of customer traffic
Security teams face a new attribution problem as Meta's Muse AI agent can slip into customer traffic while posing as an ordinary browser.
Tanium teams with NVIDIA to manage local AI endpoints
IT teams gain patching and compliance controls for NVIDIA's local AI systems as Tanium extends its endpoint platform beyond standard PCs.
Forrester warns AI costs will cut B2C marketing plans
Higher AI spend will force B2C marketers to trim a third of planned projects as usage-based pricing pushes budgets under strain.
