'Future of work' on agenda as NZ govt digital leaders head to Microsoft US HQ | RNZ News

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Phil Pennington, Reporter

phil.pennington@rnz.co.nz

Top government leaders are heading to Microsoft's US headquarters for briefings.<br>Photo: AFP

Two top leaders of the government's push to go digital are heading next week to Microsoft's US headquarters for briefings.

The visit comes days after the government signalled it would intensify the use of AI to help reduce the headcount in the public service by over 10 percent.

The "future of work" would be one of the key global technology trends in the two-day executive briefing in Redmond near Seattle, the Internal Affairs Department said.

Microsoft issued the invite in February and it "does not relate to recent ministerial announcements", deputy secretary enterprise services Darrin Sykes said in a statement to RNZ.

The department's chief digital officer and the director of strategy at the Government Digital Delivery Agency will attend the two-day executive briefing.

"The aim of the visit is to enable officials to stay informed on digital trends and emerging technologies (spanning across the GDDA and DIA's broader digital work streams)," Sykes said.

"The programme will cover key global technology trends, including Government 3.0, future of work, cybercrime, quantum innovation, and robotics."

'Government 3.0' is a term popularised by the South Korean government over a decade ago, referring to setting up a digital state using tech like AI, big data and robotics.

Microsoft was paying some local expenses like meals and local transport, while DIA covered international travel and accommodation, Sykes added.

Microsoft is the biggest financial partner of AI powerhouse OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT which launched the generative AI seachange three years ago. It has held exclusive rights to offer OpenAI's tech to other customers on its cloud computing service though recently the two pulled a little bit apart.

Microsoft is an anchor provider of cloud services to the New Zealand government, mostly so far through its big datacentres in Australia.

The government's digital target state.<br>Photo: Supplied

In one such deal, Internal Affairs did an agreement with Microsoft to supply its cloud and softward products to "eligible" government agencies from October 2024.

The Education Ministry offers Microsoft services to many schools under a centralised contract; it has a second such contract with Google. Documents had shown Microsoft keen to develop AI in schools.

Eight companies have all-of-government agreements - aimed to simplify contracts and cut costs - to provide cloud services here; all but one of these are from overseas, with mos being from the US, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

The Government Digital Delivery Agency used to be part of Internal Affairs but is now under the Public Service Commission.

The commission is responsible for implementing the 8700 public sector job cuts announced by the government this week, to be made over the next three years, partly through the greater use of AI and digital technologies.

The commissioner Sir Brian Roche told RNZ he could get it done and New Zealanders deserved it.

"We have got very old outdated systems, we've got very old outdated processes and we're not serving New Zealanders as well as we could."

Ahead of next week's Budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said on Monday the job cuts would save $2.4 billion over four years to put into frontline services, and the streamlining of the sector would partly be via AI.

Officials recently launched the 'Digital Government Target State' to digitise government.

It would treat digital resources "as a national asset" and help government connect better within the public sector and "with partners outside government".

Internal Affairs has been setting up various systems for people to verify their identity online if they choose, so to access many more services, while retaining old manual access too.

Chair of law and technology at the University of Auckland Alexandra Andhov suggested AI costs were artificially depressed by intense competition for now and might well skyrocket.

She also questioned if the AI public sector push would deepen government reliance on US Big Tech, saying she had yet to see signs of settings that favoured local companies.

"This is my concern, and I think this is how potentially the government, in the context of the discussions around AI, could reframe its position," Andhov said mid-week.

"It's not that, oh, we will push all this money out to Microsoft or to OpenAI, but rather to start thinking, 'OK, how can we do it internally? How can we do it in New Zealand?

"For a number of reasons, including cybersecurity, including the fact that we don't want our data to be flown to the US - if this is to be on cloud or whatever.

"And actually we engage with New Zealand companies...