{"id":200578,"date":"2025-12-25T01:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/200578\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T01:42:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:42:25","slug":"ai-in-new-zealand-kiwis-remain-more-wary-than-other-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/200578\/","title":{"rendered":"AI in New Zealand: Kiwis remain more wary than other countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Younity survey of New Zealand tech workers found 64% are concerned AI will impact their job security and nearly 8% are \u201cvery concerned\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kantar polling showed 45% of Kiwis are also uneasy about government agencies using AI and 66% want the option of interacting with a human instead.<\/p>\n

Polls commissioned by Datacom suggest New Zealand has been slower than Australia to adopt AI tech, with many businesses still trialling it in specific departments.<\/p>\n

Leaders in this year\u2019s NZ Herald Mood of the Boardroom survey recognised the potential of AI<\/a> but noted uptake was slow<\/a>, with cyber security a key concern<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kerry Purcell, chief executive of platform engineering and cloud technology services firm LAB3, which operates in Australia, New Zealand and the US, said businesses and governments needed to focus on how AI could help them solve problems they\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have ageing population issues, we have health issues, we\u2019ve got to educate our kids, cheaper, better, faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a tool. Make sure you focus on your social or your business problem, your economic problem, whatever it might be, and getting that really clear upfront early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk of an AI bubble has been looming large, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis warning it could trigger the next global market crash<\/a> and the Reserve Bank identifying it as an ongoing \u201creal risk\u201d to the economy.<\/p>\n

Purcell said there had been \u201cso much noise around this company, that company, and valuations\u201d but businesses needed to look beyond that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk about this a lot with CEOs and CFOs and CIOs in New Zealand and Australia, having the same conversations: really double down and focus on what it is you\u2019re trying to solve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI \u2013 if deployed in the right way at the right time, with the right skills \u2013 can be a fantastic benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Datacom\u2019s polling showed that where AI was used, it was mostly for automating repetitive tasks, analysing and reporting data, optimising workflow and enhancing customer experiences.<\/p>\n

Key barriers where AI wasn\u2019t being used included a lack of skills, challenges with data quality and integration, uncertainty about regulations and resistance from staff.<\/p>\n

Purcell said New Zealand had been addressing core issues \u2013 data centre infrastructure, trust in AI applications and the readiness of businesses and organisations \u2013 but AI skills remained a \u201cnatural bottleneck\u201d.<\/p>\n

Michael Sergel is Newstalk ZB\u2019s business reporter, covering the daily life of business and the business of daily life. He\u2019s been covering business, politics, local government and consumer affairs for over a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Younity survey of New Zealand tech workers found 64% are concerned AI will impact their job security…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,365,9556,21972,27245,4282,6694,1958,71,78,9557,807,13457,130,5971,117,111,43,139,35921,69,193,35481,13120,312,370,145,131,1363,80,24750],"class_list":["post-200578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-benefit","tag-beyond","tag-boss","tag-countries","tag-focus","tag-from","tag-in","tag-intelligence","tag-kiwis","tag-look","tag-more","tag-need","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-noise","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-particularly","tag-remain","tag-says","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-than","tag-wary","tag-zealand","tag-zealanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}