AI, robots and Newcastle: how the city became a budding tech hub

Several companies have recently relocated from capital cities or shunned them altogether in favour of Newcastle, while others are so confident in the city's tech future, they've included "Newcastle" in their business name.

Business Hunter chief executive Bob Hawes said there had been a deliberate effort to grow the region's tech industry over many years, and the sector had begun to snowball.

"People recognised that it had always been a hole in the city's economy," Mr Hawes said.

Robotic Systems, based in the Mayfield West, specialises in the design and manufacture of new types of AI-powered hardware, like a drone farmers can use to automatically detect and spray weeds without damaging nearby plants.

Director Adam Amos has set his business an ambitious goal.

"What we're trying to do by 2030 is build the ultimate piece of industrial tech hardware and to us that looks like a satellite system," Mr Amos said.

"That's our goal; by 2030 putting something designed or manufactured by Robotic Systems in the sky."

Mr Amos plans to achieve the lofty goal from a warehouse in Mayfield's industrial precinct.

"In Sydney, a lot of the good opportunities are already sewn up - in Newcastle, it's a city for the young," he said.

"In Newcastle, it's quite different from Sydney in terms of degrees of separation between you and decision makers.

"As long as I'm the director of Robotic Systems, we're going to be here."

Newcastle AI, as the name suggests, is a locally-based artificial intelligence business that provides tailor-made AI solutions to solve specific problems within a wide range of businesses.

Managing director Joshua Leask said it was a conscious decision to use Newcastle in the business name and he was "very much aware" of the city's growth trajectory.

"Tying our name to Newcastle means I have a lot of confidence in where we're going," Mr Leask said.

"What I've seen is a lot of different disparate companies and groups getting together and working together."

"We've got some very big multinationals here, with their funding and all the engineering talent in the area, I think there is huge potential for us in the Hunter."

James MacDonald founded Newy Tech People to specifically cater for the growing needs of the local sector.

"We started five years ago, and the technology space in Newcastle has changed so significantly in that time," Mr MacDonald said.

"There was a time five to 10 years ago, when students would come out of University of Newcastle with a computer science degree and not have any jobs locally. They would have to move away to Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities.

"It's been really interesting to see the growth of Newcastle where there are opportunities for students to have opportunities locally and have a career, but also attract some other talent back to Newcastle."

Mr Hawes the region's world-class research institutes - such as Hunter Medical Research Institute, University of Newcastle and the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources -

"We have this richness of research institutes, no other region can boost the width and breadth of them like us," Mr Hawes said.