BSNS350 · Online · Distance · University of Otago · Summer School · 9 Nov – 12 Dec 2026
The AI
Room
How New Zealand businesses are using AI. The problems they're solving with it. What they want from graduates entering the workforce.
Each week, you hear how a New Zealand business is thinking about AI right now, from the people inside it.
Enrol via eVision → Paper details at OtagoThe lineup
Who's in the room
Leaders and practitioners from New Zealand businesses: the people deciding where AI belongs, using it to solve real problems and hiring graduates.
The leaders
The people deciding where AI belongs in the business, what to back and what stays with people.
The practitioners
The people using AI to solve problems now: what works, what does not, and what they had to learn.
Why this paper exists
Five things New Zealand
businesses need from you
as a graduate.
We asked them. Not which AI tools they use, but what they need from someone walking through the door in 2026.
- YourselfA position on AI that is yours, that you can take into any workplace and defend.
- What AI isWhere it came from, what it does, what it cannot do and what it costs. First principles, not tool training.
- The ability to buildSolve a real problem with it, not just talk about it.
- New Zealand contextNZ businesses, a Māori lens, and how any of this works here rather than in Silicon Valley.
- A reality checkWhat NZ businesses want from graduates, and what you can offer them.
The five weeks
What you learn
Stance · yourself
Your group becomes a leadership team. You decide where AI belongs in the business and write your position down. You will be held to it in week five.
Analytics · what AI is
Where AI came from, and what it can and cannot do. Then company data, and working out how much of what it tells you to believe.
Automation · build
Build something that works. Then decide which parts a person should still do.
Responsible AI · New Zealand context
You present what you built. Two people take it apart: one on what it does to your staff, one on Māori data sovereignty under Te Tiriti.
Synthesis · the reality check
Employers tell you what they want from a graduate. Then you rewrite the position you took in week one, and show what changed.
Recorded lectures · live conversations
The room won't
be replayed.
The lectures are recorded and available throughout the paper. The weekly conversations with business leaders are live and not recorded, so they can say what their organisations are really doing with AI. Everything you're marked on, you can do from the recorded material.
Who can take it
Open to all students
at Otago University.
One prerequisite: 54 points at 200-level, in any subject. You do not have to be a Commerce student, and you do not need an AI background.
Whatever you are studying, you are walking into a workplace that AI will change in some way. This is the paper designed to get you ready for that, and you can take it alongside any degree.
Worth checking: how the 18 points credit towards your own degree. Your programme adviser will know.
Working this summer?
Built to fit
around a job.
Online, from anywhere, over five weeks. It is a full 18-point paper, so plan for about 36 hours a week, but almost all of it is yours to schedule.
Lectures, when it suits
Two parts each week. The theory is recorded, so watch it at 6am or at midnight and rewatch it before an assessment. Pass a short quiz to open each one.
The NZ business
The second half of each week's lecture, live and never recorded, so they can say what they are really doing with AI.
The workshop
Live each week, and where you are expected. Assessments are set and group work formed here.
The clinic
An optional drop-in each week. Come with a question, or don't come at all.
Assessment on your clock
No exam. Applied work you complete in your own time, on your own schedule.
Take it to your employer
Ask for a letter explaining the paper and its workload, so you can agree study time with your manager before it starts.
First session · 9 November 2026
The room opens in … days
The basics
What you need to know
- BSNS350 · Special Topic: Business Decision-Making in an AI-Enabled World
- 300-level · 18 points
- Distance (online) · Summer School
- 9 November – 12 December 2026
- Open to students from any degree with 54 points at 200-level
- Check with your programme adviser how it fits your degree
- No technical or AI background needed
- Applied assessment · no exam
- Enrolments are open now, through Otago's eVision
- Live-session timetable to be confirmed
- Intensive five-week paper · about 36 hours a week
- Lectures recorded. Business conversations live.
Are you in
the room?
See what New Zealand businesses are doing with AI in 2026, from the people doing it.
Enrol via eVision → Ask a question