Using AI to Support Small Businesses

At Business Mentors NZ, our mission has always been to empower small businesses with the right guidance at the right time. In 2025, with the support of MBIE, we explored how AI could help us streamline processes, improve Mentor and Mentee support, and free up more time for what matters most: human connection.

From automating Meeting Summaries of Mentor meetings to creating better access to resources for business owners, AI is already helping us deliver more impact with a lot less admin.

Shaped through significant Mentor input, extensive testing, and many hours of real-world use, these tools have been designed to ensure they are practical, safe, and truly game changing. The result is a set of fit-for-purpose, custom-built tools, designed specifically for BMNZ Mentors and the business owners they support - not off-the-shelf technology, but tools shaped through real mentoring experience.

See below an overview of how our AI use cases integrate seamlessly. 

The development and delivery of our AI capabilities is supported by a number of trusted technology partners, each bringing specialist expertise to ensure the security, integrity, and effectiveness of the platform.

CreativeQ, through its SmartSpace platform, manages the AI services that power our Mentoring Assistant, Digital Mentor, and Pulse capabilities. Their responsibilities include the secure management of mentoring data, the generation of AI-powered meeting summaries, the anonymisation of sensitive information, and the extraction of aggregated business insights.

These processes help us identify emerging trends, better understand the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand Business Owners, and continually enhance the value of the mentoring experience, while protecting the privacy of Mentors and Business Owners.

BAC is responsible for the integration between our AI capabilities and HubSpot, ensuring a seamless flow of information across our systems. They oversee how the Mentoring Assistant and Digital Mentor interact with HubSpot and Mentor Hub, enabling Mentors and the Business Mentors New Zealand team to access relevant information and insights within their existing workflows.

This integration supports a more connected, efficient, and informed mentoring experience for everyone involved.

Advanced Digital provides specialist oversight of the Microsoft environment that supports our AI integrations. This includes the management of the Microsoft Teams platform used throughout the mentoring process, including meeting recordings, transcriptions, and the secure retention and deletion of files.

They also play an important role in maintaining the security, compliance, and governance frameworks that enable our AI capabilities to operate safely and responsibly within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Together, these partners help us deliver a secure, scalable, and innovative AI-enabled mentoring platform. By combining trusted technology, robust governance, and specialist expertise, we are creating new ways to capture insights, enhance mentoring conversations, and deepen our understanding of the needs of New Zealand Business Owners.

Importantly, while AI helps us streamline processes, identify patterns, and generate valuable insights, the human connection remains at the heart of our mentoring programme. The experience, judgement, empathy, and guidance provided by our Mentors continue to be the foundation of every mentoring relationship. Our AI capabilities are designed to support and strengthen these connections, enabling Mentors to focus more of their time and expertise on helping Business Owners navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and achieve their goals.