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Only 7% of AI budgets in New Zealand go on people: how UK workers can turn that into an opening

Tips · 2026-09-16 · 4 min read

New Zealand businesses are buying AI tools quickly. What they are not doing nearly as fast is preparing the people who have to use them. A new industry report on technology trends in New Zealand puts a figure on it: 93% of AI spending goes on the technology itself, and only 7% on people and skills.

In a country already dealing with an ageing workforce and staff shortages in the regions, that imbalance is a problem for employers. For a skilled worker in the UK, it can be a chance to stand out. Here is how to use it.

Understand what employers actually lack

The report argues that the time for experimenting with AI is over. The firms that will get ahead are the ones that rethink how work is done, not those that simply add a chatbot to an old process. It calls the second approach shallow adoption, and it is common: worldwide, only around one in eight organisations has put agentic AI into real day-to-day use. Most are still running pilots.

That tells you what is scarce. It is not people who can log in to a tool. It is people who can change how a job is done around it, retrain colleagues and run teams where people and automation work side by side.

Show how you changed a process, not just which tools you used

When you write your CV or prepare for an interview, describe a time you redesigned part of your work using new technology. What did the process look like before? What did you change? What happened as a result? A short, concrete story like that speaks directly to the gap the report describes.

Look beyond the office

The report describes a hybrid human and silicon workforce, with AI and robotics taking on routine, repetitive or dangerous tasks. That shift is spreading into agriculture, utilities, infrastructure inspection and transport, sectors where New Zealand's geography and spread-out population already make staffing hard. Employers in these areas are likely to need:

• technical operators who can run and maintain autonomous systems, not only office users of AI
• specialists in regional and infrastructure-heavy work where drones, autonomous inspection and remote robotics are growing fastest
• people from overseas where local skills gaps cannot be closed quickly enough

If you have worked on UK infrastructure, energy networks, farms or transport and have used drones, sensors or automated equipment, make that experience easy to spot.

Treat cyber skills as a bonus in any role

The report also warns that AI is making cyberattacks faster and more convincing, with automated tools helping attackers run phishing campaigns and look for weak points quicker than security teams can react. As aviation, healthcare and transport rely more on digital systems, under-skilled teams become a bigger risk. Whether or not you work in IT, training in security awareness or experience following strict data rules is worth mentioning.

Keep building skills and say so

The report's view is that the skills pipeline, more than any software licence, will decide which companies get real value from AI. Employers want people who keep learning. List recent courses, certificates and projects, and be ready to explain what you can now do that you could not a year ago.

Why this matters in a small market

In a small market like New Zealand, getting the balance between technology and people wrong builds into a lasting disadvantage, while getting it right is a real edge because so few firms are doing the harder work. That 93/7 split is the figure to remember: the tools are already being bought, and the people who can use them well are what is scarce.

Read about work visa options on Immigration New Zealand's visa pages, and see current openings on our jobs page.

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