38840 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for Economic Growth

38840 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for Economic Growth: How much, if any, was spent in the 2023/24 financial year in the Minister's departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any, on artificial intelligence, including costs on training staff, deploying systems, maintaining subscriptions and any other associated costs?

Hon Nicola Willis: I am advised that in many cases, using AI tools is part of a larger IT system upgrade or development rather than discrete AI spend. This means AI-related costs are often embedded within broader contracts or invoices, making it difficult to accurately identify and isolate the proportion of expenditure attributable specifically to AI activities or services. As the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment would have to undertake significant manual collation in order to retrieve the historical information requested by the Member, I do not consider the staff time, hence the expense of this exercise, to be in the public interest. I have asked officials to look at how this information can be better recorded going forward. However, as set out in Question 94 of the 2026/27 estimates post hearing questions which can be found at the following link, MBIE has provided a FY25/26 spend across AI initiatives: https://www3.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCEDSI_EVI_97c07b6e-1598-4123-a158-08dec02a9cfd_EDSI22259/ded02391e692c768995c51469dd15ec72e5acddd. With regard to New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP), a total cost of $50,000 was spent on training in the 2023/24 financial year.