How One NZ cut provisioning time from 10 days to 10 minutes using AI

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life. Whether it's helping us work, shop, search or solve problems, more New Zealanders are interacting with AI than ever before.

But One NZ's 2026 AI Trust Report found that adoption alone isn't enough. As AI becomes more common, trust is becoming the deciding factor in whether people embrace it or reject it. New Zealanders told us they want transparency, accountability and human oversight when it matters.

That insight has shaped how we approach AI at One NZ. We know success is no longer about being the fastest to deploy AI everywhere. It's now about using AI responsibly to solve real problems.

One example of this approach in action is our work with technology partner UiPath.

When a business customer orders a new mobile service, a range of behind-the-scenes steps are required to activate that service and connect it to the right account, plan and systems. This process, known as enterprise mobile provisioning, has traditionally involved a mix of technology systems and manual workflows to get the service up and running correctly for the customer. 

Rather than replacing existing systems, we partnered with UiPath to connect them through a single orchestration layer that combines AI, automation and human decision-making. Using UiPath Maestro, we were able to streamline workflows across multiple disconnected systems while maintaining governance, visibility and control. 

A process that once took up to ten days can now be completed in under ten minutes, using the same underlying systems and workflows. Even more importantly, the solution was implemented in just five weeks, demonstrating how organisations can create meaningful outcomes without embarking on costly multi-year transformation programmes.

The benefits extended well beyond efficiency, including faster service activation for customers, less manual administration for our people, and reduced operational complexity. 

We're now extending the use of UiPath Maestro into finance, risk, fraud and complex IT programmes, alongside broader customer and operational workflows. This reflects a wider shift from automating individual tasks to connecting entire business processes across departments. It also positions UiPath as a transformation, orchestration and control layer, helping us connect legacy and strategic platforms as we modernise. Rather than relying on a single, high-risk cutover, UiPath allows us to automate processes across legacy and strategic platforms while systems are progressively upgraded, replaced or retired.

Building trust through experience.

One of the strongest findings from our AI Trust Report was that trust is increasingly shaped by experience rather than perception. People are judging AI based on how it performs in real life. 

For One NZ, responsible AI means focusing on practical use cases where AI can improve customer outcomes, reduce manual effort and support our people to do their best work.

Trust is not only shaped by what customers experience. It is also built through the controls, visibility and assurance behind the scenes. UiPath's roots in Robotic Process Automation mean it was built to run automation reliably at scale, with the governance, monitoring and auditability needed as organisations move towards more agentic forms of automation. 

UiPath gives us greater transparency over how work is actually being performed, where exceptions or control weaknesses appear, and where operational or financial risk may be building. Those insights can then be used to prioritise improvements, strengthen controls and reduce risk over time. That visibility helps ensure AI-enabled automation is not only faster, but more observable, governable and manageable.

The UiPath project demonstrates how AI can remove friction from complex back-end processes and dramatically improve the customer experience. It's proof that organisations don't need to start from scratch to unlock meaningful outcomes. By connecting systems and people in smarter ways, AI can help simplify experiences for customers, reduce complexity for employees and deliver results at scale.