IAB New Zealand Summit Puts AI Discovery on the Agenda for Kiwi Marketers
Summary
IAB New Zealand has published highlights from its sold-out Discovery: AI & Search Summit, which examined how AI-generated answers are reshaping brand discovery. Speakers from Google, Amazon Ads, OpenAI, Kantar and Taboola discussed changing search behaviour, agentic commerce and new measurement challenges. The development signals that New Zealand businesses must manage structured information, usefulness and brand authority across AI-powered discovery channels.
Our Analysis
• We believe the summit confirms that visibility is becoming an information-quality challenge, not simply a ranking challenge.
• In our experience, smaller firms can compete by improving accuracy, reviews and service utility before expanding media budgets.
• Our team sees agent readiness becoming a practical website requirement for trans-Tasman growth.
• Measurement frameworks must now account for influence that occurs without a website click.
Full Story
The Interactive Advertising Bureau New Zealand has published an event wrap from its sold-out Discovery: AI & Search Summit, highlighting how artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers find brands, products and services across New Zealand and Australia.
Published on August 19, the update brings together insights from speakers representing Google New Zealand, Amazon Ads Australia, OpenAI, Kantar, Taboola and several local agencies. The event focused on the shift from conventional search results towards AI-generated answers, instant-response interfaces and emerging forms of agent-mediated discovery.
For New Zealand’s digital marketing sector, the central implication is that visibility can no longer be measured only through rankings, clicks or website traffic. Businesses increasingly need to understand whether their brands are accurately represented, recommended and made actionable within AI-powered platforms.
The summit’s contributors also pointed to different strategic requirements for marketers. Google New Zealand’s presentation addressed the use of generative AI features in Search and the continuing importance of search-engine optimisation fundamentals. Amazon Ads focused on changing digital behaviour and the role of customer insight in growth, while OpenAI discussed how businesses in New Zealand and Australia are adapting to new forms of discovery, decision-making and brand engagement.
The event also gave prominence to agentic commerce and utility. Rowan Schaaf, co-founder of Auckland-based Pattern, argued that brands will increasingly compete on whether they provide the tools and information that software agents need to complete tasks. That places greater pressure on businesses to maintain accurate product, service, location, availability and transaction data across their digital channels.
For small and medium-sized New Zealand businesses, the development is particularly significant. Smaller firms may not have the budgets to compete for traditional search prominence, but they can improve their chances of being discovered by keeping business information consistent, publishing genuinely useful content, strengthening customer reviews and ensuring that websites are technically accessible to automated systems.
The summit also underlined the importance of measurement. If consumers receive answers without visiting a company’s website, marketers will need new ways to track brand presence, consideration and commercial influence. The event wrap referenced a New Zealand survey by The Optimisers that found leading answers can vary according to the AI engine being used and may not correspond with actual market share.
IAB New Zealand’s update reflects a broader change in digital marketing priorities. Search strategy is moving beyond the pursuit of blue-link traffic towards managing brand authority across a fragmented ecosystem of search engines, AI assistants, advertising platforms and emerging software agents. For Kiwi businesses competing domestically or across the Tasman, accurate information and practical utility are becoming core marketing assets rather than back-office considerations.