AI consulting in Christchurch.

How we work with Christchurch organisations

Levy Street is based in Wellington and has no Christchurch office. We come to Christchurch for the stages that need people together: mapping the workflow with the staff who do it, reviewing prototypes on your documents, testing with users, launching and training. Engineering runs remotely from Wellington between visits, with weekly progress by video. The visit plan for each stage is written into the scope, so nothing about our presence is left vague.

The method is the same as our national AI consulting service: one workflow, one number to move, tested on your own material before anyone commits to a build.

Canterbury’s economy at a glance

Canterbury is growing in both output and population. It produced 12.9% of national GDP, $55.5 billion, in the year to March 2025, up 5.3% (Stats NZ), and was the fastest-growing region by population in the year to June 2025, up 1.1% to 698,200, with Christchurch City growing 1.0% to 419,200 (Stats NZ). In February 2025 the region had 82,431 business locations and 333,300 employees, 13% and 14% of New Zealand’s totals (Stats NZ).

Manufacturing is the backbone. It was Canterbury’s largest industry by GDP in the year to March 2024 ($5.0 billion), ahead of construction ($4.7 billion) and professional services ($4.7 billion) (regional GDP tables), and second by employees across the region with 35,900, behind health care. MBIE names Canterbury, with Auckland and Waikato, as one of the main centres of New Zealand manufacturing (MBIE). Within Christchurch City, health care and social assistance employed 33,300 people (14.0%), followed by retail (23,000), manufacturing (22,100) and professional services (22,100); across the region, agriculture, forestry and fishing employed 16,600 from 9,216 business locations (Stats NZ data; rankings ours). Figures are provisional and are refreshed by Stats NZ on 30 October 2026.

Where AI use cases are clearest in Canterbury

Local context worth knowing

Canterbury’s public bodies are thinking about AI governance in the open. Environment Canterbury re-established a councillors’ Artificial Intelligence Working Group on 13 May 2026, whose workshops are generally open to the public (ECan). The University of Canterbury offers a Master of Artificial Intelligence and, through UC Online, a Master of Applied Artificial Intelligence designed for people without a coding background (UC), useful for anyone building internal capability. Canterbury researchers are also part of the “Physical AI for Real-World Systems” concept shortlisted in December 2025 for the national AI research platform, with the University of Waikato (Beehive).

How a Christchurch engagement runs

1. First visit: map the work. On site with the people who handle the documents, collecting real examples and the numbers you track.
2. Prototype on your documents. Built remotely, then reviewed on a second visit or by video, depending on what needs testing with users.
3. Decide with the approvers. Ranking, recommendation and running costs, presented in person.
4. Build remotely, visit at the milestones. User testing, launch and training happen in Christchurch; the engineering between them runs from Wellington.

Relevant work

• PainPal: Levy Street worked with BetterWorx, a subsidiary of Construction Health and Safety New Zealand, on this AI workmate for musculoskeletal pain and injury prevention, launched in December 2025 for construction workers.
• Eco-index: a now-closed New Zealand biodiversity programme (2021 to 2026) on our client list, whose open data and AI-trained vegetation detection models were built to guide native ecosystem reconstruction.

Written by the Levy Street team in Wellington. Last updated 19 October 2026.