"What I really found in terms of coming home and wanting to speak Maori, and as a learner myself, it was finding opportunities to practise.
"Getting back up home to korero with my nana particularly was a bit of a challenge when I'm working in Auckland and have three kids."
Reobot is accessible through Facebook messages. You simply send it a message - you can start with kia ora - and take it from there.
It knows lots of phrases helpful for everyday conversation including topics like time, coffee, the weather and more.
Lovell, who is of Ngapuhi ki Whangaroa, Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa, and Ngai Tahu descent, said Reobot was born after he started looking at ways technology could be used to help people practise te reo Maori.
A colleague of his, Jonnie Cain, who is a co-founder of Reobot, went to an artificial intelligence day and was shown some of the technology. They started working on Reobot in late last year and it came to life in February.
"I kind of figured that I'm not alone in wanting to speak Maori and wanting to practise more often. Everybody has a phone so I was looking at how you could get your te reo Maori fix everyday," Lovell said.
Now there are several thousand people who talk to Reobot.
"I think a lot of people are interested in te reo Maori. This is more targeted to the person who is only just starting out learning te reo Maori and hopefully it provides them a bit more opportunity to practise.
"There's a million ways people can try improve and use their reo. Reobot is just another way people might be able to keep it going."
Lovell said the next step is to expand Reobot so he knows a wider range of phrases.
To have a korero with Reobot visit www.facebook.com/tereobot
