25929 (2026). Hon Phil Twyford to the Minister of Immigration

25929 (2026). Hon Phil Twyford to the Minister of Immigration: Has Artificial Intelligence been used as part of the Biometric Capability Upgrade; if so, has the use of Artificial Intelligence directly caused a reduction in FTEs working on the Biometric Capability Upgrade?

Hon Erica Stanford: INZ has used Artificial Intelligence in the form of biometric matching algorithms since 2016. One of the goals of the Biometric Capability Update (BCU) was to update the biometric algorithms responsible for facial and fingerprint matching. The BCU did not use any other form of (analytical, predictive, generative, or agentic) Artificial Intelligence. The BCU project has now been discontinued and a review into its failure will be commissioned by the Public Service Commission. I am advised that FTEs ranged over the course of the project but there were no reductions as the result of AI.