AI Guidance issued to clipboard wielders; how to raise productivity

This week the Government issued guidance to regulators on how to utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) to raise productivity, Regulation Minister David Seymour says.

"Outside of Wellington, improvements in productivity and efficiency are the norm. Households and businesses have found ways to do more with less. It's reasonable to ask the same of the agencies they fund," Mr Seymour says.

"For the first time, the full scale and structure of New Zealand's regulatory landscape has been mapped, exposing decades of overlap and complexity.

"AI can enable regulators to do more, faster. New Zealand's public service is bloated, snowed in by red tape and inefficient. The AI guidance will help us address those problems. An efficient public service that gets bang for taxpayer buck is important to Kiwis.

"In New Zealand there are over 260 regulators. This includes 95 in central government, 79 in local government, and 57 statutory bodies, committees, or tribunals.

"The guidance shows regulators how to utilise AI in lower risk areas. Used well, AI can help them work more efficiently. AI can do powerful work. It analyses at scale, drafts at speed, and surfaces patterns people might miss.

"Ultimately, regulatory decisions still rely on human judgement, legal interpretation, and accountability. That's why regulators need to know how to use it, when use is appropriate and how to set up AI tools for the best chance at success."

AI can help regulators:

• Detect non-compliance and emerging risks earlier
• Prioritise monitoring and inspections based on risk
• Surface evidence to support decisions
• Identify patterns across large datasets manual analysis might miss
• Reduce administrative burden for regulators and regulated parties

"This will drive change in the size of government and support our mission to give taxpayers a fairer deal. Every dollar not wasted on bureaucracy is a dollar that can stay with the people who earned it, or be spent on the frontline services New Zealanders actually rely on," Mr Seymour says.

"In a high-cost economy, regulation isn't neutral - it's a tax on growth. This Government is committed to clearing the path of needless regulations by improving how laws are made and applied."

More information and the AI guidance is available on the Ministry for Regulation website.