Visir AI was named the winner in the micro-workplace category (five to 20 employees) at the “2025 Best Places to Work” awards, announced at an event in Auckland on Wednesday.
Executive director Josh Hobbs said it was humbling to be considered one of the best places to work in New Zealand.
They were “beyond words”.
“I never thought we would actually win.
“Just being included in the finalists was great recognition for us.”
The 18-month-old company, centred in Lake Hawea, employs nine fulltime staff who all worked remotely — including in Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Brisbane.
From bespoke builds and educating customers on AI to embedding it into their organisations, Visir AI specialised in building AI solutions.
“There’s always going to be a human element involved with AI, to a certain extent, and it’s those human things that AI can’t replace.”
The company valued the time people took out of their lives to work for them and tried to balance that as much as possible by offering fully flexible work hours, Mr Hobbs said.
As long as staff were meeting deadlines and completing their hours, “we’re not actually bothered when you do those hours”.
They were also given two paid days off per month on top of their normal leave entitlements.
The money they would typically invest in an office and power was instead used to get the team together three times a year, Mr Hobbs said.
“Beginning of the year, we took everyone to the Gold Coast for four days and then we went to the Bay of Islands in August.
“Building that team culture around working together and enjoying each other’s company is really important to us, too.”
While there seemed to be a drive from larger organisations post-pandemic to get people back into the workplace, Mr Hobbs believed their business model could become more popular in the future.
“We’re proving the case that if you give people the ability to work where they want and how they want, you get really, really great results.”
Oamaru-based bird and small animal feed operation Topflite also received a spotlight award for “Community & Regional Impact”.
