About AuraScope

Derrick and Misha both worked at Air New Zealand before starting Harnex AI, an AI-native services business.

In its first year, two things became obvious. AI search was growing fast, and more of how people find and buy things was going to happen through an AI assistant. So we built a platform that shows any brand what those assistants say about it and which sources they trust. Fifteen customers signed up in the first three months.

The growth hid a problem. Measuring AI visibility was fast becoming a commodity, and Profound and others were already winning that market.

So we went back to travel, and AuraScope became its own company.

We think trip planning is one of the first jobs people will hand to an AI agent, and those agents are starting to book. Meta, OpenAI and xAI all launched personal agents in August and September 2026. An agent books whatever it can read, and today that's usually an online travel agency, with the commission going with it.

• 1st

  authenticated agentic payments in New Zealand, in February 2026, included an AI agent booking a stay at QT Queenstown.

  Mastercard and Westpac NZ, 17 February 2026. Announcement

• 88.8%

  of NZ Tech Expo attendees have used an AI assistant to plan a trip. Only 1 of the 79 who had used one let it book.

  Our survey of 89 attendees, September 2026. Results

• 79.4%

  of the New Zealand hotel websites we could audit fully are hard for AI to read.

  Our audit of 147 luxury and boutique hotel websites, May 2026. Method and results

So we're building it here first, with paid design partners in New Zealand: a glamping network and a luxury lodge so far.

To be straight: most travellers aren't ready to let an agent book yet, and nobody publishes agent booking numbers. We think that's the window. The brands an agent can read when it arrives are the ones it can book.

The full research, with every source: The state of AI search in travel

• Derrick Edward

  

  Co-Founder

  Head of Strategy & Product

  Engineer, trained in deep learning. Owns the product and the measurement method.

  LinkedIn

• Misha Afon

  

  Co-Founder

  Head of Customer

  Runs customers, the audits and the design-partner programme.

  LinkedIn

• Nicholas Varley

  

  Founding Engineer

  Head of Engineering

  Builds the measurement system, and the booking layer we're developing.

  LinkedIn

• Our method is public.

  The commitments behind every result, and where the evidence stops, are set out in one versioned document.

  Measurement method

• Unbuilt features are labelled.

  On this site, anything still in development carries a label saying so.

  What a result can and can't show

• We don't guarantee bookings.

  The booking still depends on your rates, your product and demand. We show what AI says, what to change, and whether it moved.

  What the audit can't tell you

• Design partners pay, and the work is written down first.

  Every engagement is scoped in writing before any money moves, so the result means something.

  Design partners

• Your systems stay yours.

  The changes we recommend are made on your own website, by your team or your agency. Nothing you run is replaced or migrated.

  Where AuraScope sits