New Zealand created its AI Strategy and Guidance products to incorporate OECD values in a distinct manner
New Zealand has just released a suite of AI materials—a milestone as the last OECD country to publish a national AI strategy. These include:
These resources aim to boost innovation, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have some of the lowest rates of AI adoption among OECD countries. They also reflect New Zealand’s commitment to using AI in ways that are ethical, inclusive, and uniquely Kiwi. Together, they demonstrate how New Zealand is implementing the OECD’s framework for trustworthy AI, in line with the resourceful ‘number-8-wire’ ethos for which the country is known.
Strategy as signal: Building trust through policy
The National AI Strategy, Investing with Confidence, sends a clear message: the Government supports AI and wants to see it used responsibly.
The strategy is grounded in the OECD’s AI Principles and confirms New Zealand’s light-touch, principles-based approach to AI regulation, which was agreed upon in mid-2024. This approach builds on existing laws, like privacy and consumer protection, and reinforces human-centred values.
By clarifying the government’s stance, the strategy helps to reduce uncertainty for businesses. It indicates where the guardrails are located and aligns with international norms, such as the OECD Principles. This makes New Zealand a smart, ethical adopter – attractive to investors and talent.
Guidance as practice: Operationalising responsible AI
While the strategy sets the direction, the Responsible AI Guidance for Businesses provides the tools.
This guidance is practical, voluntary, and designed for all types of businesses, from sole traders to large firms, whether they use or develop AI. A quickstart guide for business users helps time-poor users find what they need fast.
It begins by asking businesses to understand their ‘why for AI’, before focusing on governance. It emphasises that good AI governance is primarily good business governance, and most businesses do not need to establish bespoke structures or processes specifically for this technology. The guidance promotes clear accountability, risk assessments, and record-keeping, supporting the OECD principles of robustness and safety, as well as those of accountability.
Transparency is covered as part of the ‘Stakeholder interactions’ section. The guidance advises businesses to explain how their AI systems work, involve stakeholders in design, and offer feedback channels. It makes it clear to businesses that this isn’t just about ‘being good’ or ‘doing good’, but is essential for building customer trust and reducing potential risks that could have financial, reputational or even punitive repercussions.
Human-in-the-loop decision-making is included as part of the ‘Use and outputs’ section. In high-risk contexts, the guidance urges businesses to ensure that humans can override or complement automated outputs.
The guidance also tackles data ethics. It urges businesses to use fit-for-purpose and lawfully sourced data, and to address issues around protecting privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, and indigenous data. It warns against biased datasets and poor model performance, and provides resources for ethical sourcing of datasets that include copyrighted works.
The section on Māori and other indigenous data reinforces the idea that good data governance and management are the foundation of handling Māori data responsibly. The guidance refers to the concurrently published Māori data and AI guidance for business for further details.
Te Ao Māori: Embedding indigenous values in AI
New Zealand’sMāori Data and AI Guidance for Business, developed by New Zealand’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation,complements the broader Responsible AI Guidance for Businesses.
This guidance acknowledges the complexity and importance of handling Māori data, providing a model for incorporating te ao Māori (Māori world) perspectives into the core of AI governance.
The guidance is built around five foundational principles:
- Whakapapa (relationships): recognising the interconnectedness of data, people, and place.
- Mana Whakahaere (authority): affirming Māori sovereignty over data and decision-making.
- Manaakitanga (Respect): ensuring AI systems uphold dignity and wellbeing.
- Kaitiakitanga (guardianship): promoting stewardship of data and technology.
- He waka eke noa (collective benefit): encouraging collaboration and collective benefit.
These principles align strongly with the OECD’s emphasis on human-centred values, fairness, and inclusivity. However, they also go further, offering a relational and holistic view of data that challenges dominant paradigms of extraction and efficiency.
Policy in motion: A framework for the future
Together, these products start to bring together a picture for how New Zealand intends to advance the OECD AI Principles in a way that recognises interests in:
- exercising good practice engagement with impacted communities, and enabling equitable impact of AI developments where possible
- enabling all New Zealanders to benefit from AI, and ensuring that the benefits from AI are fairly and appropriately distributed
- respecting te reo Māori (Māori language), Māori imagery, tikanga, and other mātauranga (knowledge) and Māori data
- supporting sustainability, including that of the industry, reflecting that it is in our interest as a small island nation to ensure we are able to innovate with and benefit from our resources for years to come.
As articulated in the Responsible AI Guidance for Businesses, they bridge the gap between principles and practice, with the strategy setting the direction and providing guidance on how to achieve it. They balance innovation with ethics, avoid heavy-handed rules, and therefore foster experimentation without impeding public trust. They also send a clear message: New Zealand is ready to catch up and even lead in areas of AI readiness, supporting Kiwi ingenuity and innovation as well as integrity.
