APEX · University of Otago Business School

Executive education for leading in the age of AI.

The AI Leadership Residency, and the applied courses growing from it. Built for the work leaders actually do, not the tools.

01 What APEX is

APEX is the University of Otago Business School's applied AI executive education. It began with the AI Leadership Residency (a two-day immersion for senior leaders), and is growing into a focused set of courses on leading, governing and changing organisations as AI reshapes them.

02 Why it exists

Most AI education teaches tools. But the foundations that leaders actually need are stance and judgement: what you actually think AI does to your work, where you put pressure, what you let go.

No one in NZ was holding that conversation at this altitude. APEX does. It is not capability building, policy discussion, or an AI-hype keynote.

03 The room is the product

We put government and business, beginners and experts, different sectors and altitudes in one room. That diversity of thought is something you can't get inside a single organisation. Practitioners lead, not lecturers. The cases are real New Zealand businesses. And we hold the work to one test: is it still running three months later?

“Often content like this for exec education is pitched too low-level. This one was spot on.”Participant, Cohort One

04 How it connects

APEX is one part of something larger we're building at Otago. The leaders in the room connect to the businesses we bring in; those businesses become the real cases our students learn from; and the thread runs all the way to undergraduates building judgement with AI before they graduate. Industry, leaders, institution and students: connected, on purpose.

The AI Leadership Residency
The flagship: two days, senior leaders, the room. Where it all started.
The courses
Leading through change · boards and management in the new world · more to come.
The Supporters Club
Businesses backing the link between industry and education — from undergraduate to job.
Led by Jess Luxton
The student work
Undergraduates learning to build and defend judgement with AI, on real cases.

05 Talk to us

If APEX sounds right for your organisation (to send a leader, to support it, or to explore a course), talk to Jess Luxton.

Email Jess