Gemini Adoption Project - Stuff NZ

As New Zealand’s largest and most popular media company, Stuff is a cornerstone of the local landscape, reaching approximately 3.5 million Kiwis every month. Stuff partnered with Dynamo6 to implement a Gemini Adoption and Implementation Plan to meaningfully engage with AI in a way that suits the exact needs of Stuff, its employees and their business goals.

Services

Cloud Services
Digital Consultancy

Deliverables

AI Adoption & Enablement
Change Management
Technology Advisory
Google Workspace

The Brief

The surge of interest in generative AI has prompted many organisations to act quickly, although perhaps not thoughtfully. Stuff NZ recognised that successful AI adoption must be strategically planned and purpose-driven, rather than just a response to the noise. By partnering with Dynamo6, Stuff leveraged our expertise in Digital Transformation and Change Management to navigate this new technology and ensure a successful, high-impact rollout. Stuff had clear business goals of increased productivity, automation of simple tasks, and to improve the work experience for all Stuff employees.

The solution

Dynamo6 worked closely with Stuff NZ to design and implement a Google Gemini Adoption Plan, with the goal of moving beyond basic experimentation to a deliberately designed programme. Stuff sought to eliminate repetitive administrative tasks across the business, freeing up their talented teams to focus on high-value, strategic work. Stuff recognised that AI does not replace admin work, it supports an increase in quality.

Korrin Balmain, our Change and Partnership Director believes that a successful digital transformation is 20% technology and 80% people. Dynamo6 designed and implemented a people-first change management programme for Stuff. By use case mapping and an Early Adopters programme, we kept the user at the centre of the transition.

Discovery and Use Case Mapping

Rather than a "one-size-fits-all" rollout, we conducted a discovery phase to identify specific pain points where Gemini for Google Workspace could offer immediate relief. We mapped these workflows, from editorial research to administrative follow-ups, to ensure the use cases aligned with the business goals of the project.

Building Capability through Early Adopters

We led a six-week early adopter program for 100 staff members, creating a representative cross-section of the business. The programme went beyond the basics, focusing on high-impact skills:

Prompt Engineering: Moving from simple queries to advanced instructions for better outputs.
Research & Synthesis: Utilising NotebookLM to turn complex documents into actionable insights.
AI Literacy: Establishing essential guidelines for fact-checking and ethical AI usage.

Feedback and Governance

Through the use of "Huddles" and a dedicated Slack channel, we gathered on-demand feedback from the team in real-time. This agile approach allowed us to capture immediate successes and limitations, providing the Governance Committee with the insights needed to shape a sustainable, long-term strategy.

The results

Gemini was enabled for each Stuff team member following the results of use case mapping, the early adopter programme and the feedback/governance programme. Our findings demonstrated significant and measurable productivity gains that aligned with Stuffs business goals.

One example of a real-world result is by leveraging Gemini to proofread and edit documentation, the team has realised productivity gains of 2–3 hours per week. In one instance, 18 pages of customer responses, previously requiring hours of manual revision, were rewritten by Gemini in just 30 seconds. This has transformed a recurring, labour-intensive task into a quick quality-check process, freeing the team to focus on higher-value work.

Another example is the use of Gemini as a research assistant, which saves 6-8 hours per week for some Stuff employees. By using Gemini and/or Gemini deep research for research topics, i.e. market research, product/tech option research, staff can now output docs or use NotebookLM to produce an audio version of research material.

Dynamo6, as a strategic partner for Stuff, bridged the gap between technical potential and real-world performance. This project was successful in meeting business goals and unique in the engagement between management, governance and employees.

Navigating the initial adoption of generative AI showed us that generic training only goes so far. Dynamo6 supported our proof of concept by working directly with different teams to identify more relevant, practical use cases. Given how fast these models evolve, the real value was in helping our users start to identify and evaluate for themselves where the tech can provide the most benefit. This tailored approach helped staff see the actual utility in their day-to-day work and provided a clearer look at where productivity gains can be made.

Tim Whitham

Head of IT, Stuff NZ

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