A few decades ago, when I worked in a Government Ministry, there were a few phrases you heard often. “Give the Minister options.” “Keep the Minister off the front page of the Dom.” And perhaps most importantly: “Do what the Minister asks for.” That last one mattered. Government is ultimately a political democratic system. Ministers weigh up a whole range of factors that officials may not see, and then they make decisions. A non-partisan public sector has to understand that. S

As someone who spends most of my time helping organisations understand the governance, risk and strategic implications of AI, I wasn't at CryptoCon NZ to hear predictions about Bitcoin prices. I went because agentic commerce creates one of the next major AI governance challenges. If AI agents are going to search, compare, recommend, negotiate and eventually transact on behalf of people or organisations, then governance needs to move beyond content, privacy and hallucination