Cognitive diversity in the age of AI: Building teams that out-innovate with a Pasifika lens
AI is here, but innovation still depends on people. This talanoa shares how cognitive diversity and cultural intelligence create teams that out-innovate.
With experience across government, education, health, not-for-profit, and green energy, Norie Ape, a Sāmoan-born, Auckland-raised Product Owner and Tech Explainerer, shows how to sunset legacy systems with care and design platforms and teams that deliver real value while keeping people and technology for good at the centre.
Who is this talk for?
This talanoa is for anyone leading technology teams across sectors: product leaders, engineering managers, delivery leads, and transformation specialists who want to build future-ready teams. Whether working in government, education, health, not-for-profit, or enterprise, the challenges of AI, legacy systems, and innovation are shared.
Norie Ape is a Sāmoan-born, Auckland-raised digital transformation leader and Product Owner at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. A Tech Explainerer, she has led transformation teams and programmes that build new platforms and sunset legacy systems.
With 10+ years across education, government, health, social enterprise, green energy, and not-for-profit [MSD, DIA, Te Pūkenga, BCITO, SolarZero, Whānau Tahi], she speaks on cognitive diversity, cultural intelligence, and AI equity, and demystifies AI for non-technical audiences.
Norie is also a member of TechWomen NZ, InternetNZ, P.A.C.I.F.I.C.A Inc, UNANZ, and NCWNZ.
LinkedIn