34024 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Climate Change

34024 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Climate Change: What procurement process, if any, was used for purchasing artificial intelligence tools, if any, currently being used within the Minister’s departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any?

Hon Simon Watts: I am advised that the Climate Change Commission does not have any artificial intelligence tools outside of those that are already contained within other products such as Microsoft 365. These tools were added after the procurement of these products had taken place, therefore the Commission has not specifically procured any AI tools. For New Zealand Green Investment Finance Limited, I am advised that only approved organisational use of artificial intelligence tools are those that have been added to other products already used by NZGIF (for instance, Copilot in the M365 suite). Open source AI tools (like ChatGPT and Google AI) may also be used by staff (e.g. as part of internet searching). Accordingly, no specific procurement was undertaken for any AI tool used by NZGIF. I am not responsible for any other departments, agencies, Crown entities, or other bodies. Members may be aware that I previously referred similar questions to the Minister for the Environment as Minister responsible for the Ministry for the Environment. That responsibility ended when the Ministry for the Environment merged into the new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) on 1 July 2026. Responsibility for MCERT sits with the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform. For MCERT I refer the Member to the Minister Responsible for RMA's response to Written Parliamentary Question 34004 (2026). For MFAT, I refer the Member to the Minister of Foreign Affairs response to WPQ 34067 (2026).