AI help in east Auckland, from someone you can sit down with.
An hour at your table is NZ$150, no GST added. You talk me through how the work actually flows, I tell you which bits are worth handing to a machine and which are not, and you get that straight rather than as a proposal. Beachlands, Maraetai, Whitford, Clevedon, Howick, Pakuranga, Botany and East Tamaki.
Or call Nick on 021 217 1760, or send a text.
Why a local AI consultant helps: most of this is easier at a table
Almost all of the website work I do happens over email and it works fine. AI advice is the one part of the job where being in the room genuinely helps, for a reason that has nothing to do with technology.
- You see the real process
The bit nobody describes on a call
On a video call I get the tidy version of how the work flows. In your office I see the printed sheet with the handwriting on it, the second screen with the spreadsheet nobody mentions, and the pile that gets dealt with on Sunday. That pile is usually where the answer is, and nobody ever brings it up unprompted.
- You can find me
A person on the same coast
If this goes wrong, or you want it switched off, or you just want to ask something six months later, I am up the road rather than a support address in another time zone. For handing a machine part of your business, knowing where the person lives is not a small thing.
- Small enough to say no
No quota to hit
An agency sending someone out has to bring back a sale to make the trip pay. I am one person and the hour is already paid for, so telling you that your business does not need any of this costs me nothing. That is the whole reason the first hour has a price on it.
AI consultant or AI help: what a local one is for
Look for an AI consultant in Auckland and most of what you find is built for a company with an IT team: a discovery process, a roadmap, and a proposal at the end. For a business in Howick or East Tamaki with five staff, the useful version is simpler. Somebody who looks at how your work actually runs, tells you straight which parts a machine could take, and can build the one or two that are worth it.
On this side of Auckland, that comes in three sizes. Advice first, at a price you can risk on a maybe: the hour is NZ$150 and the written plan is NZ$490. Training on your own work, if what you really need is to use ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini properly rather than buy anything new. A build only where it earns its place, from NZ$1,790 for one job, with the running cost written down before you agree.
What a local consultant should not do is sell you a platform, keep the accounts in their own name, or promise hours back before they have seen your week. Everything here goes in your name, and anything that reaches a customer is approved by a person first. The longer version, with privacy, funding and five worked examples, is on the page about AI for small business in New Zealand.
Where I come to for AI help in east Auckland
Beachlands is home, so this is the half of Auckland I know without looking at a map.
The Pohutukawa Coast. Beachlands, Maraetai, Whitford and Clevedon, and out to Kawakawa Bay. The short trips, and the businesses that are usually furthest from anyone who does this kind of work.
Howick and around. Howick village, Cockle Bay, Mellons Bay, Bucklands Beach, Half Moon Bay, Pakuranga and Highland Park. Shops, clinics, trades and the offices above them.
Botany and the newer suburbs. Botany, Flat Bush, Ormiston, Dannemora and Burswood. The town centre, the clinics, and the businesses run from home in the newer streets.
East Tamaki and Highbrook. Workshops, fabricators, warehouses and wholesalers, which is where a lot of the typing things twice happens.
Where we meet is up to you: your workshop, your shop, your office, a cafe if that is easier, or a video call if you would rather not tidy up. The hour costs the same wherever it happens. And if you are nowhere near here, it works on a call just as well. East Auckland is where I live, not the edge of the work.
What happens in the AI hour, step by step
No slides and no demo. It is a conversation about your own work, and it can be the only thing you ever buy.
Before: two lines
Send a couple of lines about the business and the job that keeps coming back. If an hour would not be worth it, I say so before you book one.
At your table
You walk me through the work from the enquiry arriving to the invoice going out, on your own screens, with the pile of paper next to the computer included.
The straight answer
Before I leave you hear whether anything is worth doing, roughly what it would cost, and what you could do yourself with the tools you already pay for.
In writing afterwards
A short written summary, so you are not relying on memory or on my version of the conversation.
If you go ahead
The NZ$150 is credited in full against anything you build with me. If you do not, you have spent an hour and have a clear answer.
AI for east Auckland businesses: three made-up examples
None of these is a client and none of it happened. They are the kinds of business on this side of town, and the shape the work would take for each.
- Illustrative example, East Tamaki
A fabrication shop in East Tamaki
Say you run a steel fabrication shop in East Tamaki with eight staff. Job sheets are written by hand, and supplier orders and drawing requests arrive by email and get retyped. The first look would be one job automated: each emailed request becomes a draft job sheet with the details pulled out, for the foreman to check. Pricing and anything structural stay with a person, every time.
Likely package: One job, automated, from NZ$1,790. The full worked example
- Illustrative example, Howick
A gift shop in Howick village
Say you run a gift and homewares shop in Howick village with an online store on the side. New stock needs descriptions for the website and Trade Me, and the same shipping questions arrive every day. The first look would be whether the writer your store already includes is good enough, and only then drafts in your own voice for you to approve. Automatic replies to reviews would be left alone.
Likely package: AI inside the work, from NZ$3,990. The full worked example
- Illustrative example, Botany
A physio or dental clinic in Botany
Say you run a clinic near the Botany town centre, and reception answers the same questions about ACC, parking and prices all day. The first look would be an assistant on the website answering only from the clinic's own pages and handing everything else to reception. No clinical advice, no health details in the chat, and nothing about a person's body answered by a machine.
Likely package: Assistant on your site, NZ$2,390. The full worked example
AI advice prices in east Auckland, from NZ$150
The published prices, no GST added, the same on every page of this site. Most local businesses should start with the hour and quite a few should stop there.
An hour on AI
NZ$150For anyone who wants a straight conversation about AI before spending a cent on it. Bring the questions you have not wanted to ask in front of a salesperson.
The full list of what is includedAI advice and a plan
NZ$490For a business that keeps being told it should be using AI and wants a straight answer about which parts of its own work are worth it.
The full list of what is includedOne job, automated
from NZ$1,790For a business doing the same handover by hand every day: copying an enquiry into a spreadsheet, retyping an order, asking for the same details twice.
The full list of what is includedThe AI we have shipped so far is in our own products, not in a client's business, and you should hear that from us before you pay for it rather than after. So the honest order is to start small. An hour on AI is the cheapest way in, and the advice session ends in a written plan that says whether the rest is worth building. Both come off the price of a build: the hour against anything you go on to build, the plan against an AI build started within 90 days. Automating a job and building AI into the work are from prices, because they move with how many tools the job touches and how many steps it has, and the plan tells you where yours lands before you pay for a build. What we will not do is promise you a percentage saved or hours back, because nobody can know that before your work is mapped. AI tools charge by use, on accounts in your name, so there is a running cost each month on top of the build, and the expected figure goes in writing before you commit. Anything that reaches a customer is either approved by a person first or built so you can switch it off in a minute. All prices are in New Zealand dollars, with no GST added. Tea Break Studio is not registered for GST, so no GST is charged on any price, quote or invoice.
What I can and cannot show you about AI
There is no local AI job to point at yet. Rather than dress that up, here is what I have actually shipped.
The AI I have shipped, and where it runs.
Most pages selling AI in this country show you logos and a percentage. Here is the honest version, and you should have it before you pay rather than after. No AI I have built is running inside a client's business yet. The AI I have shipped is in two products of my own, and you can open both right now.
Harbour ThoughtsToday
Harbour ThoughtsJournalHarbour Thoughts: AI that runs on the phone
Harbour Thoughts is a journal and reflection app, and the part that matters for you is where its AI runs. Once the model has been downloaded, it runs on the device rather than on somebody's server. No account is needed, and your journal entries stay on the device.
That is the same question your business has. Where does the thinking happen, whose machine holds the data, and what leaves the building. I have had to answer it for real, in shipped code, rather than in a slide.
Open Harbour Thoughts
Snagged: drafts from your own documents, approved by a person
Snagged is my free job board for the Pohutukawa Coast and east Auckland. Its CV and cover letter tool is live: paste a job ad, and a hosted model drafts a CV and letter for that job from the person's own CV. A second automatic pass checks the draft against the CV and takes out claims it cannot support. That check is a safety net rather than a guarantee, so the person reads and approves every line before it goes anywhere.
It is closer to what a business would buy than Harbour is: a model drafting from your own documents, a check, and a person approving before anything reaches anyone.
See the Snagged cover letter toolSo the order here starts small. An hour on AI is the cheapest way in, at NZ$150, and the written plan at NZ$490 says whether the rest is worth building. Both come off the price of a build if you go ahead, the plan when the build starts within 90 days. If the honest answer is that your business does not need any of this yet, that is what you will be told.
AI help in east Auckland: what people round here ask.
Mostly some version of: is this actually for a business my size.
Anything not here, ask. 021 217 1760
- AI for small business in NZAll five prices, worked examples, privacy, funding, and the jobs I would leave alone.
- Websites, east AucklandThe same person, the same side of town, for the site itself.
- Work you can openLive sites and apps, each labelled for who it was built for, rather than logos in a row.
- Every AI priceNext to the website, app and 3D prices, with what is in each one.