Using AI to solve real-world problems

Wellington’s record-breaking Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (PRICAI) has helped cement the city’s reputation as an AI leader, hosted by Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) at Rutherford House on Pipitea Campus (17 to 21 November 2025). The conference attracted 550 researchers from 30 countries to discuss innovative ideas in AI. PRICAI was hosted in New Zealand following a successful bid led by Professor Mengjie Zhang, Director, and Professor Bing Xue, Deputy Director, of VUW’s Te Whiri Kawe - Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. It was supported by Business Events Wellington and Tourism New Zealand Business Events. 

Professor Bing Xue says, “The Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Victoria University of Wellington was established in 2023. We wanted to bring working researchers to Wellington to let the international community connect with the New Zealand research community and establish new collaborations.” 

PRICAI 2025 was held in conjunction with the local conferences of Image and Vision Computing New Zealand (IVCNZ) and the Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association New Zealand, bringing additional global education and networking opportunities for New Zealanders working in AI. 

“We decided to host the three conferences together, and I think we have achieved our goal of connecting the three communities together,” says Xue. “It was great to see a lot of discussions between New Zealand researchers and the researchers from overseas.” The international reputation of VUW’s AI research community helped attract higher-than-expected attendance. There were nearly 800 submissions for content, more than twice the regular figure. 

“For both PRICAI and IVCNZ, we hit the record high number of submissions, with authors from over 50 countries,” says Xue. “Personally, I had all my colleagues come to Wellington to see this beautiful city. Professionally, it’s great to let people know the excellent research our team has done, as well as to promote our research centre, and to increase the reputation of Victoria University of Wellington.” 

Delegate feedback has been positive, with attendees valuing the collaboration opportunities and the emphasis on beneficial applications of AI technology. Dr Sankalp Khanna of CSIRO Health & Biosecurity in Australia, delegate and member of the PRICAI steering committee, says, “2025 has been a fantastic PRICAI conference. It’s given the international community a really good way to interact with the local community here, all of whom are working on academic and real-world problems that AI can help solve, and that interaction has probably been the highlight of the conference for me.” 

Delegate Nelishia Pillay of the Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria, adds: “The trip was worth it. The benefit of all that long travel is interacting with leading people in the field that I work in. The group led by Mengjie Zhang and Bing Xue at Victoria University of Wellington they’re one of the leading groups in my area. 

“At other conferences that I attend, we focus a lot on developing new algorithms. [At PRICAI in Wellington] the focus was real-world problems that we can actually solve using [AI], from things like cancer diagnosis to sustainability.” 

The result was a successful conference programme which spanned the city from the VUW campus to functions at Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre and the Michael Fowler Centre. “People were very happy with the venue, the view, the food, and the New Zealand wine,” Professor Mengjie Zhang notes. The interconnectedness of the capital city’s knowledge hubs and access to government departments helped with the prospect of advancing AI for positive impacts across the economy, environment, health, and society. 

“The immigration office was also very supportive of our conference delegation,” Zhang adds. “We received very good support from Tourism New Zealand and Business Events Wellington. Without their support, it would have been impossible to have such a successful conference.”