Reviews
Reviews of Blake Harkness
What people say about working with me. Reviews from conference organisers, delegates and the businesses I’ve built for and trained, word for word as they were published.
11 on speaking and 13 on work. Every talk is in the speaking log.
Speaking and presenting
From organisers and audiences
We had Blake speak at our 'BA Big Day In' conference on the 16th of October 2026. Blake is an amazing speaker and had a group of 120+ Business Analysts in the palm of his hand! The way he was able to show a new world where AI tools were truly integrated into your day-to-day (with well-tailored and reusable skills driving the mahi) was inspiring. A real asset to put in front of any audience!!
Blake presented at our IFAA conference and received excellent feedback from our advisers. He made AI easy to understand, with practical examples and useful ideas they could apply in their businesses. His session was a conference highlight and left members keen to learn more. We'd happily recommend Blake to other organisations looking for an engaging speaker on AI.
Blake's AI presentation was among the most frequently cited as the most valuable session of the conference - consistently described as practical, relevant and immediately useful for delegates' businesses.
Just had Blake present at our conference and he was fantastic. Super informative but at a level we could all understand and very engaging. Highly recommend as a speaker for an event.
Blake has been a fantastic supporter of juniors breaking into tech. He ran two sessions for Summer of Tech this year, and the response was huge: 100+ students attended. Blake gave our tauira practical, honest advice on building an online presence that gets them noticed and on the AI skills NZ employers are hiring for right now. Just as importantly, he gave them confidence. He showed students that you don't need years of experience or a big following to start standing out, a powerful message for anyone early in their career. Thanks, Blake, for investing your time in the next generation of NZ talent. <3
Blake gave us a great introduction about what is AI. The slides and explanations were clear and easy to understand. The demo using Claude was helpful as well. Highly recommend.
We recently invited Blake to speak at a UC Marketing Society event about how AI is actually being used in marketing, and he was fantastic. Blake made AI feel practical and accessible, sharing real examples from his own business, including content repurposing, organising media, competitor research and SEO. I especially appreciated his honesty about the mistakes he had made, including handing too much of the creative process over to AI and seeing how quickly that can weaken a brand. His presentation was engaging, relatable and refreshingly free of empty AI buzzwords. The key message, that AI should amplify your skills rather than replace your thinking, really stuck with me. Blake was also incredibly generous with his time and advice. I would highly recommend him to any business, organisation or student group wanting a realistic and genuinely useful perspective on AI and marketing.
Organised, eloquent speaker with great insight to the future of AI on work. Working with Blake for our "Graduating into AI" event on behalf of AUT CSEA, was simple and high impact.
I attended a seminar about AI in marketing where Blake was one of the presenters. I learned plenty from the discussion and his insights were seriously valuable in guiding my approach to using AI in marketing strategy in my own work. Definitely worth learning from these guys as they are experts with AI and I think it's super important to know how to use it to support your work, not take it over. I highly recommend Harkness AI.
Knows what he's talking about! Super engaging speaker, highly recommend.
Firstly it was lovely collaborating with Blake through my podcast initiative 'The Tech'o'Space Podcast', he surely has set the standard high when it comes to innovation in the IT field.
Work
From clients and teams
AI builds, Claude setups, training and workshops, through Harkness AI.
Blake has become our go-to for everything AI in our business - from setting up Claude and training our team, to building integrations like our PayHero setup that we had struggled with ourselves. He is a genuine sounding board, hits his timelines, and hands over tools that work with clear instructions. We would happily recommend Blake and Harkness AI to any business looking to get real value out of AI.
Alex and I spent a day with Blake from Harkness AI setting up Claude across our complicated business systems, and it was the best investment we've made! Rather than just showing us features, he built everything around our real platforms. We highly recommend Harkness AI to any business wanting to simplify its systems, work smarter and get real, practical value from AI.
Blake built me a custom AI 'brain' that now handles a chunk of my day-to-day admin and research gathering. He took the time to understand how I actually work before building anything, and has been responsive every time I've hit a snag. Great combination of technical skill and genuine patience with a non-technical client. Would recommend him to anyone wanting to put AI to real use in their business. Thanks Blake!
We brought Blake in to run an AI workshop for our team, and it was excellent. He struck a great balance between explaining concepts clearly and keeping things practical, encouraged questions and made the whole session feel very engaging. Highly recommend if you're looking to upskill your team on AI in a way that actually sticks.
Blake is amazing, his knowledge of AI is really impressive. He helped us become more confident with AI and showed us how to use it in our business. The training sessions were great, and he's very approachable and always happy to help. He also presented at our networking event and received fantastic feedback from everyone.
Blake gets it - prompt, professional, knows his stuff. He took us through the easy set ups and built custom connectors and processors for our more niche requirements. Quick, fun and already changing the way we work.
Recently completed a half day course with Blake building my Claude Brain. The course was insightful & practical. Running 2 companies I know this is going to help me claw back some time on a lot of the repetitive tasks. Thank you Blake, excellent value and advice.
Blake ran a couple of sessions for my team. He was fantastic; he made it really simple for the whole team to understand, regardless of their previous AI experience.
Blake brought a solid technology & AI perspective to our engagement at BMC. He clearly knows his space and was easy to work with, the conversations he sparked were useful in helping us get clearer on what we actually needed from a systems / AI standpoint. Thanks again.
Blake took the time to understand our vision and explained the technical side in a way that was easy to follow, making the whole process simple and stress-free. He took a complex idea and turned it into something practical, clear and user-friendly. Great work, great communication, and a great experience from start to finish.
Blake exemplifies what makes a great tech-sector professional: the ability to combine strong technical expertise with excellent soft skills. He pairs high-level technical competence and sharp critical thinking with outstanding collaboration and communication abilities.
Blake is an outstanding collaborator. He is exceptionally well-suited to work with businesses of any size - whether small startups or large organisations. Blake has a unique ability to identify core challenges and transform them into effective solutions.
Blake is an absolute gem to work with! When I was drowning in the deep end trying to implement our Podcast Portal, Blake threw me a lifeline. He became an A+ collaborator who made the whole experience actually enjoyable.
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Get in touch
Booking Blake to speak
Speaking, media and general enquiries come straight to me through the enquiry form. Harkness AI keeps the full talk list. Want an AI engineer embedded in your team? That’s Harkness AI.