Top 10 AI Tools Every Finance Professional in New Zealand Should Know in 2025

By 2025 AI is core to Kiwi finance work: the AI Forum reports 82% of New Zealand organisations now use AI and 93% say it boosts worker efficiency, unlocking faster reporting, smarter fraud detection and automated bookkeeping that tools like Xero already deliver for many firms (AI Forum New Zealand AI adoption report).

Government action and funding are catching up - New Zealand's national AI strategy aims to raise adoption and trust across the economy (New Zealand national AI strategy announcement) - so finance teams who pair responsible tool choices with upskilling stand to win.

The payoff is tangible: studies suggest an average worker could free up about 275 hours a year using generative AI as a copilot. Practical training converts that time into impact; Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp teaches prompt-writing and applied AI workflows for finance professionals (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp).

Attribute	Details
Description	Gain practical AI skills for any workplace; use AI tools, write effective prompts, apply AI across business functions.
Length	15 Weeks
Courses included	AI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost	$3,582 early bird; $3,942 afterwards; paid in 18 monthly payments
Syllabus	Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus
Registration	Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work

“Harnessing AI effectively remains crucial to addressing New Zealand's productivity challenges and ensuring global competitiveness,” says Madeline Newman, Executive Director.

Selection for the Top 10 focused on practical, New Zealand‑specific value: each tool had to address the adoption and productivity reality shown in local research (82% of NZ organisations now using AI and 93% reporting efficiency gains), close skills and trust gaps, and fit the regulatory and ERP modernisation push noted by government and industry voices.

That meant screening for measurable ROI or clear time‑savings (tools that plausibly convert automation into the hundreds of reclaimed hours a year highlighted in NZ studies), strong security/compliance features for Aotearoa's privacy expectations, and low‑friction paths to deployment for SMEs that remain cautious about AI. Where possible, tools were cross‑checked against sector evidence - from finance uptake in national reports to vendor claims about ERP alignment with the national AI strategy - to prioritise solutions that enable CFOs and finance teams to move from routine bookkeeping to higher‑value analysis.

See the underlying New Zealand productivity data and sector analysis in the AI‑driven productivity report and the government‑aligned ERP perspective for practical context: AI-Driven Productivity Gains in New Zealand (2025) report and Wiise: New Zealand AI strategy and ERP modernisation.

For New Zealand finance teams looking to move beyond spreadsheets, Wiise is a purpose-built ERP that brings accounting, payroll, inventory and banking together with local NZ bank feeds, a New Zealand chart of accounts and payroll links to Inland Revenue's Gateway Services - so payday filing and Holiday Act compliance are much less manual (Wiise for NZ businesses).

Day-to-day gains come from practical automation: automated invoicing, click-to-pay Stripe integration and AI-assisted reconciliation (Microsoft Copilot can match transactions so you can “reconcile in minutes, not hours”), which helps free finance teams for analysis instead of chasing payments (automate billing and payments with Wiise).

Security and compliance are enterprise-grade - hosted on Microsoft Azure with ISO certifications - and real customer wins include multi-thousand-hour annual time savings, making Wiise a sensible step for Kiwi SMEs ready to scale; see the step-by-step bank reconciliation guidance if you want to understand how bank feeds and matching work in practice (bank reconciliation guide).

Attribute	Details
ROI	172%
Productivity improvement	18%
Labour cost saving	$245k

“Without Wiise, we wouldn't have been able to continue to grow. It's transformed the business and there are still a lot of capabilities that we haven't utilised yet.” - Cameron Rollason, CFO at FVS

ChatGPT has become a practical generative assistant for reporting and modelling that Kiwi finance teams can use to move fast on recurring tasks - think executive-ready summaries, benchmarking, scenario modelling and even bank‑to‑ledger checks - by turning messy CSVs and trial balances into clear variance narratives and suggested adjusting entries in minutes rather than days.

Guided prompts and templates make it useful for board reports, investor updates and FP&A scenarios (see OpenAI's finance use‑cases for structured prompt examples), and specialist guidance like DFIN's “AI prompts for financial reporting” shows how to break reporting into stepwise prompts for safer, auditable drafts.

It pairs well with spreadsheets, BI and APIs (generate Excel formulas, API snippets or a clean dashboard outline), but must be treated as an assistant: always validate numbers, protect sensitive data, and log prompts as part of an audit trail.

For New Zealand teams starting small, try a few targeted prompts - such as reconciling transactions, drafting board talking points or flagging large variances - and iterate until the outputs fit local reporting norms and regulatory needs.

“Stop reporting the numbers. Start owning the story.”

Make.com (formerly Integromat) is the visual, no‑code engine finance teams use to turn repetitive tasks - think invoice approvals, payment processing and cross‑system reconciliations - into reliable, drag‑and‑drop workflows without writing a line of code; it

“shines at the art of visual workflow design,”

connecting apps, APIs and databases to handle complex automation visually (Make no-code workflow automation overview).

For New Zealand finance teams wary of long IT projects, Make's approach lets business users prototype and iterate fast, reducing bottlenecks and replacing the old shoebox-of-invoices habit with a live canvas that routes, notifies and reconciles.

Pairing these flows with AI‑assisted features and governance best practices - such as those in Microsoft's workflow automation guidance - unlocks smarter exception handling and safer change control as organisations scale automation across finance functions (Microsoft Copilot workflow automation guide for business).

Datarails brings a finance-first, spreadsheet-friendly ChatGPT-style assistant to FP&A that suits New Zealand teams who still live in Excel but need faster month‑end answers and better visibility across systems.

Its AI-powered FP&A Genius sits on top of FinanceOS to consolidate ERP, CRM, payroll and Excel inputs into a single source of truth and can turn a messy request into an executive-ready answer in about 60 seconds via “fast finance requests”; the platform's new proactive “Insights” layer even surfaces the what, why and recommended next steps so CFOs can spot risks or growth pockets sooner (Datarails FP&A platform for finance teams, Datarails next-generation AI Insights for FP&A).

For Kiwi finance teams already using Xero, built-in integrations make it straightforward to pull local bookkeeping into consolidated dashboards and scenario models without rebuilding existing Excel workflows (How Datarails FP&A solution works).

The practical payoff: fewer late nights at month‑end and more time turning numbers into decisions that move the business forward.

Capability	Notes
AI assistant (FP&A Genius)	Conversational, proactive insights and storyboards
Data consolidation	FinanceOS unifies ERPs, CRMs, HRMS and Excel
Integrations	Includes Xero, Oracle, SAP, Dynamics, Power BI and more
Ratings	Capterra 4.7, G2 4.9

“The ability to proactively discover insights that can move the needle in a business in real-time is no longer the preserve of the biggest companies. The transformational power of AI now makes this a reality even for smaller companies...” - Didi Gurfinkel, CEO and Co‑Founder

Perplexity has earned a place on Kiwi finance desks because it combines real‑time web search with transparent, numbered citations - so teams can generate an evidence-backed summary and click directly to sources for audit or compliance checks (handy when preparing board packs or due‑diligence notes).

Its Labs, file upload and transcription features let finance teams turn lengthy contracts or audit trails (tasks that once took hours) into concise, sourced briefs in minutes, while templates and Spaces help keep research repeatable across a small finance team; see a practical digital‑due‑diligence rundown and growth snapshot at Cognitive Creators and a user-focused feature guide at Wonder Tools.

Perplexity's strengths - fast synthesis, multi-turn follow-ups and source links - fit NZ needs for speed plus traceability, but be mindful of limits (file size and occasional retrieval inconsistencies) and use its privacy controls and source checks when handling sensitive Inland Revenue or payroll data.

Attribute	Metric
Monthly active users (mid-2025)	~22 million
Monthly queries	~780 million
Daily queries	~30 million
Estimated ARR (Mar 2025)	~$100 million
Reported valuation (rumoured)	$14 billion
Pro plan	$20/month (adds uploads, Labs, more citations)

Trullion turns contract-heavy headaches into audit-ready ledger entries by ingesting PDFs, Excel sheets and other source files, applying proprietary OCR and AI to pull names, dates, payment terms and clause-level details that matter for revenue recognition and lease accounting; the result is structured, traceable data that supports auditors and shortens close cycles so processes that once took days can now take seconds (Trullion contract data extraction).

For finance teams wrestling with ASC 606/IFRS 15 treatments or lease schedules, automated extraction reduces manual re-keying, surfaces risky clauses and creates a clean audit trail that feeds ERPs and FP&A tools - matching the practical, domain-specific approach recommended by contract-extraction guides like ContractPodAi contract data extraction guide.

The payoff is simple and memorable: fewer midnight rebuilds of revenue schedules and more confident, source-linked numbers when the auditors knock on the door.

Nanonets Flow is a practical, AP-focused IDP that can turn a shoebox of supplier bills into standardised JSON in seconds - extracting header fields (invoice number, dates, tax IDs) and SKU‑level line items so GL coding, PO/GRN matching and approvals can be automated and routed straight into your ERP or Xero.

Its platform accepts PDFs, email attachments, mobile photos and API uploads, supports dozens of languages and supports human‑in‑the‑loop validation so straight‑through processing rates above 80% are achievable while keeping an audit trail; Xero users can even expect much faster closes - see the Nanonets Xero integration guide for faster invoice processing with Xero, which notes books can close up to 90% faster when invoices flow automatically.

For NZ finance teams juggling high volumes, built‑in workflows, configurable approval rules and export connectors cut manual entry, reduce reconciliation errors and protect data with enterprise security practices - see the detailed feature and integration notes in the Nanonets invoice OCR documentation and integration guide for setup steps and ROI examples.

Capability	Notes
Fields extracted	Header (invoice no, dates, tax IDs), line items (description, qty, unit price, SKU), totals
Ingestion channels	PDFs/images, email, API, cloud storage, mobile upload
Accuracy / STP	Vendor claims up to ~99% accuracy; STP targets >80%
Integrations	ERP/accounting exports, Xero connector, webhooks/API
Workflow features	Validation rules, 2/3/4‑way matching, GL coding, approval routing

Stampli is built for accounts payable teams that want to turn invoice chaos into a single, auditable workflow - especially useful for NZ finance teams juggling approvals across locations and ERPs - by centralising conversations on each invoice, flagging duplicates, and surfacing suggested GL codes and approvers through its AI copilot, Billy the Bot™; the result is fewer late payments, faster approvals and real-time visibility that has helped some customers cut processing time by days and reclaim headspace for cash‑management and vendor relationships.

Its strength is practical collaboration: every question, PO and receipt sits on the invoice so auditors and approvers see the full trail at a glance, vendors get self‑service status via a portal, and deep ERP integrations (NetSuite, QuickBooks, Dynamics and more) mean no painful rework of existing systems - Stampli claims implementations take weeks, not months.

For teams assessing AP options, review Stampli's product overview and the vendor's feature guide to compare workflow, PO matching and payment capabilities before piloting it in a Kiwi finance environment (Stampli AP automation overview, Stampli AP automation feature guide).

Capability	What it delivers
AI copilot (Billy the Bot™)	Auto-capture, coding, approver suggestions and duplicate detection
Invoice collaboration	Centralised, searchable conversations and audit trail on each invoice
PO matching	2- and 3-way matching with AI reasoning for complex scenarios
ERP integrations	Pre-built connectors to major ERPs for fast deployment

“The ease of routing is unmatched. The ease of approvals for individuals within the organization is unmatched. It is a tool that has moved our company forward in both technology and increased productivity…With Stampli, we have decreased our days to process by over 3 days!!”

Vena's Vena Insights and Copilot bring AI‑driven budgeting, forecasting and consolidation into an Excel‑native experience that suits many Kiwi finance teams still fluent in spreadsheets - think centralised templates that refresh automatically, built‑in audit trails and Teams integration so FP&A conversations and numbers live together.

The platform is purpose‑built to consolidate ERP, CRM and payroll feeds (it even offers a native Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central connector), which makes multi‑entity or multi‑currency consolidation and month‑end close less painful for New Zealand groups using Microsoft‑centric stacks; Vena's product pages highlight the Copilot + Insights pairing for conversational analysis and template automation (Vena FP&A software overview).

For mid‑market and enterprise finance teams weighing time‑to‑value, independent reviews note real customer wins - examples of rebudgeting and much faster reporting - so the real payoff is practical: fewer late nights reconciling versions and a single, auditable model to defend in the boardroom (Vena pricing and reviews).

Attribute	Notes
Interface	Excel‑native, integrates with Microsoft 365 (Excel, Power BI, PowerPoint)
AI features	Vena Copilot (conversational FP&A) and Vena Insights (automated analysis)
Integrations	ERP/CRM/HR connectors including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Best for	Mid‑market to enterprise finance teams that rely on Excel and need consolidation & auditability

Otter.ai can be a genuine time-saver for Kiwi finance teams - turning meeting audio into searchable transcripts, concise summaries and action-item lists so nothing important falls between the chairs - but its convenience comes with real privacy and governance questions New Zealand teams should weigh before rolling it out across the finance function.

Practical trials praise speed and speaker labelling for in-person and virtual meetings, yet high‑profile concerns have surfaced: a public Official Information Act request asked for transcripts and security assessments after ministerial charges for Otter usage (FYI Official Information Act request for Otter.ai transcripts and security assessments), and U.S. litigation alleges Otter's meeting assistant can join and transcribe calls without explicit consent, raising risks around data used to train models (NPR article on Otter.ai transcription privacy lawsuit and related litigation).

For New Zealand finance teams the practical checklist is straightforward: enable explicit consent and notice, lock down sharing and retention settings, avoid transcription for legally sensitive or executive sessions, and record the consent trail so transcripts become a productivity asset - not a compliance headache.

Attribute	Fact from sources
Estimated users	~25 million (global)
Meetings processed	~1 billion since founding
Notable privacy event (NZ)	OIA request for Otter transcripts and security assessments (Feb–Mar 2025)

“We are deeply committed to safeguarding our users' data and protecting privacy. Nobody should be recorded without their knowledge or permission, regardless of the recording device used.”

New Zealand's July 2025 AI Strategy and its Responsible AI Guidance give finance teams the green light to act - but action should be deliberate: start by mapping a single, high‑value use case (think faster month‑end, AP straight‑through processing or cash‑flow forecasting), run a short pilot with one of the tools above, and build basic governance around consent, audit trails and data handling to meet the Guidance and Treaty-informed expectations in the Strategy (New Zealand MBIE AI Strategy and Responsible AI Guidance (July 2025)).

The opportunity is real - policy authors estimate AI could add up to NZ$76 billion by 2038 - so small, fast wins matter: pick a measured pilot, log prompts and outputs, and require human sign‑off before models touch numbers or filings (DLA Piper summary of New Zealand AI Strategy (July 2025)).

Upskilling is the multiplier: for teams that prefer structured learning, Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp teaches prompt craft, applied workflows and practical governance to turn pilots into repeatable capability (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration), so finance can move from cautious curiosity to confident, compliant adoption.

Attribute	Details
Description	Gain practical AI skills for any workplace; learn tools, prompt writing and applied workflows.
Length	15 Weeks
Courses included	AI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost	$3,582 early bird; $3,942 afterwards; paid in 18 monthly payments
Syllabus / Registration	AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus • AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration