Skai Solutions is an AI phone agent built in New Zealand for the country's 9,858 cafes and restaurants and 7,422 takeaway food services, answering every call your team cannot get to and writing the order straight into the POS you already run. It takes bookings, handles Kiwi accents and Maori place names, and holds several calls at once.
New Zealand has more venues per head than most of the world, and almost all of them run on a single phone line answered by whoever is closest to it.
Source: Stats NZ Business Demography Statistics, February 2025 (counts rounded to base 3), and the Restaurant Association of New Zealand 2025 Hospitality Report.
A caller who can't get through doesn't leave a message and try again tomorrow. They ring the next place on the list. The order is gone before you know it existed, which is exactly why missed calls never show up in your reporting.
Most AI phone products are trained on North American English. They mishear the things that matter most on a New Zealand call, and the first mistake is usually the last, because the caller hangs up.
| What the caller says | What US-trained AI often hears | Skai Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Ōtāhuhu, Papatoetoe, Whakatāne | Mangled or dropped entirely | Understood |
| "Six" / "sex", "deck" / "dick" - the NZ short vowel | Frequent misreads on numbers and quantities | Tuned for NZ vowels |
| Takeaway, tea for dinner, chippie | Treated as unknown vocabulary | Local vocabulary |
| An 0800 or 09 number read aloud | US number formats assumed | NZ formats |
Phone orders land in your POS the same way any other order does. No re-keying, no second screen, no new hardware, and you keep your existing phone number - calls simply divert to Skai.
Currently connected: Kounta/Lightspeed, Square, Impos, H&L POS, Tevalis, Revel, TouchBistro and Oracle MICROS. Running something else? Bring it to a demo and we will tell you straight whether it connects, rather than promising a roadmap date. Every system has its own page under POS integrations covering what syncs and what does not.
A 15-minute demo on a real call, using your menu and your venue's questions. No obligation, no lock-in contract, and 30 days' notice to cancel if you do sign up.
Book a Free DemoYes, and that's the specific reason Skai exists rather than reselling a US product. Skai is tuned for New Zealand speech, including Māori place names, suburb names and the short vowels that trip up North American models. It's the first thing to test on a demo call, and we'd rather you did.
No. You keep the number your customers already know. Calls divert to Skai, and you can turn the divert on and off whenever you like - during service only, after hours only, or all the time.
Skai transfers the call to your team. It's there to take the routine volume off your floor staff, not to stand between you and a customer who genuinely needs you.
Yes, every simultaneous call is answered. A Friday rush that would normally give callers an engaged tone gets answered in full.
Recording a call you're a party to is generally lawful in New Zealand, and the Privacy Act 2020 governs how that information is then collected, stored and used. Skai handles disclosure and retention settings as part of setup. This is general information, not legal advice - check your own obligations if you're unsure.
Five days from sign-up. No tech team required.
Your city. Venue counts, local wage rates and what phone cover actually costs where you are: AI phone answering in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
The money. Skai Solutions pricing in New Zealand dollars sets out the plans and the setup fee. If you are still working out what the category costs, what a phone answering service costs in NZ compares the options, including the ones cheaper than us.
The category. What an AI receptionist is for a restaurant or cafe explains what the product does, what it costs in both markets, what it handles badly and who should not buy one. If you are not sure whether you need software or simply someone to take messages, what a telephone answering service is separates the three kinds.
Choosing between agents. How to choose an AI phone agent for a New Zealand restaurant covers what to test on a demo call and which questions expose an overseas product.
Your POS. The full list of POS systems Skai Solutions connects to, with a page for each. Takeaway operators should also read how AI phone ordering handles modifiers and sold out items.
Everything Skai Solutions has published sits in the guides library, and the about page explains why the product is built for Australia and New Zealand only.