About

Kia ora, I'm Benny Pan.

I was a cancer pharmacist before I was anything else. My mum died of cancer, so I chose oncology, to be there for patients and their families. Instead, tedious paperwork took me away from them. Most of my pharmacy colleagues lost their passion, because serving patients was not what they spent most of their time on. I also worked on design and data evaluation of pharmaceutical clinical trials.

Because of my own children, I entered the education sector. I clearly remember the differences I'd made with young people when I got to mentor them. But the paperwork problem followed me into education, and I saw many caring teachers burn out because of it. I was the first teacher at Rototuna Senior High School to use AI tools in class in a planned way. I spent as much time working out what AI was doing to my students' thinking as what it could do for their work, and that became my Master's research at academyEX.

From 2025 I started running AI training outside school. 108 educators at one teachers-only day. 157 science teachers across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. 63 education leaders in 18 countries through EmpowerEd, in partnership with the Asia-Europe Foundation.

People often ask which AI tool to use because they are drowning in bureaucracy. But the real question is how can we put AI last, people first.

That is why I started this business: to give people who care for others their time back for the people they care about.

So I named the company after the order of work. Remove first. Simplify what is left. AI last, on the task that pays back most. It costs less that way, and less can go wrong. My promise to every client is that every change starts with less work and fewer layers.

Today I run AI Last Limited from Hamilton. I am an AI Associate in partnership with BAIC Ltd, an AI governance firm that works with ISO 42001, the international standard for managing AI. I lead the Hamilton chapter of the AI Collective and sit on an AI Forum NZ working group. I have three daughters, and most of what I believe about AI and thinking I learned by watching them.

He waka eke noa. We rise, fall, work and learn together. This principle underpins everything I do.