Building AI into your Business or Service

What you’ll do
Bring one service or repetitive task from your business. Serge will take you through how to design a service with AI in it: what an AI agent needs to know, when it should act, and where a person stays in control.

Then you’ll map your own task, step by step: the trigger, the information it needs, the output, and who signs off. You leave with a clear blueprint for an agent to handle it.

In the last hour, Serge builds agents live, including a couple from the room, so you can see how quickly a well-planned agent comes together. Everyone gets Autohive credits to build their own afterwards.

For example: chasing membership renewals that haven’t been paid, answering the questions customers ask every week, or turning rough notes into a quote.

Who it’s for
People who run a service or a repetitive process and have one in mind to work on. You should have used ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini before. This session is about how to put AI to work, not whether to.

What to bring
One task from your work to map, and a laptop. We supply the canvas, wifi and Autohive credits.

A note on Autohive
The workshop runs on Autohive, a no-code platform for building AI agents. Serge is an investor in Autohive. We’re using it because it suits the session, and what you learn carries across to other tools.

About Serge
Serge van Dam is an investor in several New Zealand AI companies and an Operating Partner at the venture capital firm Movac. He co-founded the AI training company AI Supercharge and advises government agencies including MBIE and NZTE. He began his career as an organisational psychologist and change manager, so he came to AI through people rather than code.

Free talk the night before
Serge is also giving a free public talk, Wake Up to AI: A Call to Arms for Nelson, on Thursday 29 October at 7pm at the Nelson Function Centre. Everyone is welcome.
https://events.humanitix.com/wake-up-to-ai-a-call-to-arms-for-nelson

Places are limited, so please book early.

Date and time: Friday 30 October 2026, 9:00am to 12:15pm
Location: Trafalgar Park Pavilion, Nelson
Tickets: $195 (incl. GST)

About the AI Sandbox
The Nelson AI Sandbox is a not-for-profit community initiative based in Nelson and Christchurch. Our mission is to empower and educate the community in the use of AI, making the technology accessible to everyone, at whatever pace suits. Find us at aisandbox.org.nz

Any questions get in touch jo@aisandbox.org.nz