ClearPoint Unlock

Hosted by ClearPoint Digital

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Oct 2025

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About the show

ClearPoint Unlock is a podcast series for digital and technology leaders who want practical insights across the ever-changing design and technology landscape. Join us as we hear domain experts and business leaders from across the industry share their thoughts, strategies and real-world experiences, from both an individual and business perspective. Through relaxed conversations on digital design, software & platform engineering, data and AI, we hope to help you make better sense of the digital landscape and share actionable thinking that you can leverage into your business or community.

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12 recent

October 1, 2025Episode 1229 min

Supercharging Operational Efficiency with AI Agents at ClearPoint

At ClearPoint, we've been actively building our internal AI workforce to transform our core operations, freeing our teams from administrative overhead so they can focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional outcomes for our clients. In this episode of ClearPoint Unlock, Michelle Poulton, Engagement Director at ClearPoint and Paul Scott, COO at ClearPoint share how what began as an initiative to eliminate the "death by a thousand clicks", the endless administrative tasks that bog down our teams, has evolved into a sophisticated ecosystem of AI agents that are making our business faster, smarter, and more focused.For leaders getting started, Paul and Michelle explain that viewing agents as supervised digital colleagues instead of ‘set and forget’ tools, is what prevents challenges like “agent spaghetti.” That foundation, combined with a strategy focused on quick wins, clear ROI, and organisational buy-in, is what ensures lasting value.

June 25, 2025Episode 1139 min

ClearPoint Unlock: Southern Cross Travel Insurance's Digital Transformation Journey

Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) partnered with ClearPoint to help deliver Project Awa – a pivotal digital programme to transform their core technology systems, and online customer and staff experiences. ClearPoint brought deep design expertise, working closely with the SCTI team to create prototypes and design the user experiences for their new agent portal, front-end customer buy journeys, and member portal. We sit down with Jess Kelso, Project Manager at SCTI, and Lisa Smith, Business Lead and Technical Systems Analyst at SCTI, as they discuss SCTI's technology transformation journey. As a team, they will have delivered both phases of Project Awa in just 18 months, keeping it well on track to deliver real value for the business. Reflecting on the partnership, Jess notes: "It's been incredible to have ClearPoint on board – pivotal in the success of the project from our perspective."

June 25, 2025Episode 1040 min

AI agents and the future of software engineering

In this episode of ClearPoint Unlock, Rob Cleghorn, CTO at ClearPoint, and Jonathan Ackerman, Principal AI Engineer at ClearPoint, explore how AI agents are transforming software engineering - from early “assistant” tools to fully autonomous digital colleagues. They discuss how these shifts are reshaping industries, the opportunities and risks for businesses, and the profound questions this wave of AI raises for society as a whole. With insights from Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index and examples like Klarna’s AI-led transformation, this conversation offers a glimpse into a future where productivity, workforce dynamics, and the very nature of work may be redefined.They see particular opportunity for New Zealand to overcome scale limitations through AI, and stress that leadership must enable rather than block adoption. Looking ahead, they explore the implications of "Phase 4" where agents lead agents - a future that raises important questions about the speed of change and its societal impact. Their key insight: the AI capabilities we see today are the worst they'll ever be.

June 25, 2025Episode 926 min

ClearPoint Unlock: Making accessibility a priority with Volition

We sit down with Erika Butters, Founder of Volition, to share Volition's story and how ClearPoint's Design Studio helped transform a validated prototype into a fully accessible, developer-ready appVolition is a social enterprise on a mission to enable disabled people to make their own decisions and live with greater independence. To support this vision, ClearPoint worked alongside the Volition team to refine their app, aligning design with best practice accessibility standards and making the experience seamless for all. Together, we focused on bringing consistency, clarity, and usability to the platform, setting the stage for future growth.

February 26, 2025Episode 918 min

Taking a faster, more affordable approach to application modernisation with MongoDB

Join Dave Shepherd, GM Software Engineering at ClearPoint, as he speaks with Jake McInteer, Senior Enterprise Account Executive at MongoDB, on taking a faster, more affordable approach to AI-enabled app modernisation. Once prohibitively expensive and risky, generative AI is reshaping the economics of legacy system upgrades by dramatically reducing costs and implementation time. Jake shares recent examples, including one customer who achieved 90% faster modernisation at one-tenth the expected cost through this approach. The conversation covers practical advice for organisations starting their modernisation journey, from selecting the right partners to maintaining data security while avoiding technology lock-in.Get in touch to continue the conversation:CleaPoint https://clearpoint.digital/https://www.linkedin.com/company/clearpoint-ltdMongoDBhttps://www.mongodb.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/mongodbinc/

August 27, 2024Episode 1629 min

The unique challenges and approaches to mobile development

In our latest ClearPoint Unlock Podcast, ClearPoint's GM Software Engineering Dave Shepherd sits down with ClearPoint's Mobile Practice Lead David Rawson in the Dave and David show, looking at the unique challenges, opportunities and approaches within mobile development. Mobile development presents unique challenges compared to backend or web front-end development. In this episode, they discuss the main differences between mobile web development, unique challenges to the practice, native app development vs cross platform development, lean experimentation, measuring the success of a mobile development team and more.

July 8, 2024Episode 626 min

The business value of Customer Identity and Access Management

In our latest ClearPoint Unlock Podcast, David Shepherd, ClearPoint GM Software Engineering, sits down with April George, Okta Principal Solution Engineer, to discuss the evolution of customer identity and the use cases to why many organisations adopt a cloud-based identity solution. They explore the growing shift towards digital identities and verifiable credentials that cloud-based solutions are well-positioned to support, and what this means for customer experience and identity management. Watch below to hear how businesses can stay agile and responsive while addressing changing customer expectations to deliver smooth and secure digital experiences.

April 22, 2024Episode 511 min

Treating data as a critical asset in organisations

In our latest ClearPoint Unlock Podcast, Jaco Saunderson, GM Platform Engineering, and Tamer Elhity, Chief Engineer - Data Platforms & Data Engineering, sit down to discuss the importance of treating data as a critical asset in organisations. They emphasise the need for organisations to understand the value of their data and link it to their strategic objectives, and highlight the importance of sponsorship and leadership in driving data initiatives within organisations. Tamer shares his recommendations for adopting a data strategy, including empowering business users through self-service platforms and taking a vertical approach to address specific business objectives.

March 27, 2024Episode 410 min

The application and impact of AI in Project Management

In our latest ClearPoint Unlock Podcast, ClearPoint's GM Professional Services Craig McDonald and Delivery Manager Caterina Berimballi sit down to discuss the potential applications of generative AI in project and delivery management, and the operational paradigm shift that creates an AI-enabled future, in the practice and in the wider organisation.

February 18, 2024Episode 316 min

Embracing the acceleration of change on a team level

ClearPoint Chief Client Officer Lesley Walmsley and Principal Consultant Bjarne Hansen sit down in the second part of our three part discussion on embracing accelerating change. Teams play a critical role in how quickly and effectively new technologies, concepts or methodologies are adopted into an organisation – so businesses should foster an environment where teams are empowered to lead and constantly adapt to change.In this episode, Lesley and Bjarne discuss how teams can best embrace change with a focus on ways of working, prioritisation and wider business alignment through feedback loops and communication channels.