Tech leaders from some of NZ’s largest organisations call on the government to establish deeper partnerships with industry to address key digital challenges 

The Technology Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) today released its Digital Priorities 2025 report, outlining the key challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s digital landscape. Digital leaders particularly expressed a desire for greater  Government participation and partnerships in the technology space, calling for more visible, strategic and impactful action to drive economic and productivity benefits.  This needs to be balanced with the right regulatory settings to enable private companies to thrive.

The fifth annual report, delivered in partnership with One New Zealand and TechLeaders Executive, includes insights from interviews with 36 CIOs and CTOs from around Aotearoa. It identifies six critical priorities that require urgent action to ensure New Zealand’s continued digital competitiveness and inclusivity.

“This year’s report paints a clear picture of the pressing issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand’s digital future,” says Craig Young, CEO of TUANZ. “We are at a critical juncture where we must address escalating cybersecurity threats, bridge the widening tech talent gap, and ensure digital inclusion for all New Zealanders.”

“It’s also vital that we accelerate technology adoption and harness data effectively while navigating Gen AI. We need the Government to step up in the right places, and we acknowledge this requires support from industry to drive meaningful change together.”

The Digital Priorities 2025 report highlights persistent challenges in the digital sector, exacerbated by rapid technological advancements, particularly in generative artificial intelligence (AI). Key findings reveal that while New Zealand shows strengths in areas like e-commerce legislation and online banking access, it lags in technological infrastructure and adoption. Digital leaders express concern that New Zealand is being outpaced globally and rate the country an average of 6 out of 10 for adoption of new technology.

Escalating cybersecurity risks was number one on the priority list. Kieran Byrne, CTO at One New Zealand, and one of the report interviewees, explains: “While One NZ has an expert internal team, and a specialist partner in DEFEND supporting our collective customers, like most CTOs and CIOs cybersecurity is always top of mind in terms of risks that need to be managed. The threat landscape is evolving so quickly, and the industry needs to work closely with partners and government agencies to ensure telecommunications infrastructure remains highly resilient, and our economy and people remain protected from these cyber threats.”

Other digital priorities identified in the report included: Bridging the tech talent gap, Digital inclusion, Accelerating technology adoption, Harnessing data, and Gen AI.

The report also highlights that when it comes to technological infrastructure, New Zealand falls toward the lower end of the global scale, highlighting a key area for improvement and public sector collaboration, especially around digitising government.

Liz Gosling, Co-Chair of TechLeaders, adds: “Our collective ambition is for Aotearoa New Zealand to be a world-leading, trusted and successful digital nation. To achieve this, we must address the issues raised in this report with urgency. We need to bridge the digital divide, invest in our people, and foster a culture of innovation.”

Key recommendations from the report include:

• Prioritising security by design and enhancing collaboration to address cybersecurity risks.
• Investing in local talent, promoting STEM education and partnering to close skill gaps.
• Improving infrastructure, making technology affordable and promoting digital literacy for digital inclusion.
• Implementing robust governance and standards for responsible AI use.
• Developing a national digital strategy and incentivising technology adoption for SMEs.
• Establishing clear policies for data use and enhancing data security.

As Craig Young summarises: “Digital technologies are critical to New Zealand’s success, we need to ensure that Aotearoa is well positioned to benefit and not be left behind due to slow or inefficient technology adoption. This includes the right sort of regulatory invention, and a focus on government support not necessarily legislative action.” 

View the Digital Priorities 2025 report here:

Ahead of the 2020 General Election, New Zealand’s TechLeaders are urging all political parties to prioritise our digital future.  The TechLeaders Executive have published their manifesto outlining specific areas that we believe the next Government must focus on.

Today, we are increasingly reliant on technology to access information, learn, shop, work and connect with family and friends.  To be a globally competitive, balanced society, New Zealand needs to strengthen its digital foundations.  Emerging technology continues to disrupt existing business models and we must innovate now for our future.    

Government has an important leadership role to play in building a flexible, resilient, safe and trusted digital technology platform that is accessible to all.

Key technology opportunities for New Zealand include;

1. Trust in our data
2. Growing economic productivity
3. Redefining the workplace
4. Upskilling the nation
5. Providing access to the best talent

Regardless of September’s election results, the next Government must embrace the key opportunities through technology focused policy in each of these areas. 

The TechLeaders Executive is a not-for-profit association of senior technology leaders, influencing positive economic and social change.  Its purpose is to provide a platform for cross-sector collaboration to actively contribute to the prosperity of New Zealand underpinned by technology.  TechLeaders is a member of the New Zealand Tech Alliance.

Meet our TechLeaders and read the 2020 Manifesto here.

Auckland – The future of work is changing at a staggeringly fast rate as digital transformation, automation and artificial intelligence take over many jobs that were previously performed by people, TechLeaders NZ chairperson David Kennedy says.

While this will make some human-driven roles obsolete, it will also create new jobs that will require different skills. This digital disruption of work happens quickly, which means companies need to be able to move fast in order to keep pace.

“For many businesses, their current staff may not possess the new skills that are going to be required in the future, so they must consider how they will future-proof their workforce,” Kennedy says in a TechLeaders NZ discussion paper just released today.

“One way for companies to ensure they have an adaptable workforce is to adopt a capability framework as a way of measuring and managing their human resources. Capability frameworks focus on continuous learning and future potential.

“Technology leaders from some of New Zealand’s largest organisations have discussed how capability frameworks can enable organisations to keep up with changes.

“The rapid rise in technology is changing the nature of work for many businesses. While these technological developments lead to increased productivity for companies, organisations are now struggling with how to keep their staff employed, engaged and able to do the changing roles required of them.

“The challenge is for businesses to prepare a future workforce which is highly adaptable. This involves ensuring that there is the infrastructure in place for people to upskill on-demand, without major time commitments.

“In order for businesses to manage their future workforce, they need to understand the skills and capability possessed by their current employees, so they adapt them to meet their changing needs.”

Traditionally, competency frameworks have been the way in which many organisations structure and manage their human resources.

Competency frameworks based on a person’s current skills can be cumbersome and complicated. Comparatively, capability frameworks are about continuous learning and potential. Capability frameworks focus on what is someone capable of doing in the future and their ability to get certain outcomes.

The implications of an accelerated pace-of-change needs to be factored in. If a business is changing rapidly, they need to understand how that impacts their staff’s needs. With the half-life of a skill decreasing sharply, they need to have a strategy in place to future-proof their staff.
“We recommend the large organisations should create the CV of the future. They need to articulate what they think are going to be the most valuable skills and attributes their employees may need going forward,” Kennedy says.

This will provide guidance to employees looking to ready themselves for future changes and help attract new talent.

“TechLeaders recognise that there is a need for education providers to offer quick, online and flexible micro-courses to upskill people who are the already in the workforce.

“While NZQA is working to introduce more micro-credentials into the market, education providers should move rapidly to pilot micro-training that may not need full NZQA credentialing to provide value.

“It will be incumbent on large organisations to clearly articulate capability development areas needed to provide guidance to education partners,” he says.

TechLeaders are part of the large NZTech Alliance which consists of more than 20 tech associations that represent more than 800 organisations.

For further information contact Make Lemonade editor-in-chief Kip Brook on 0275 030188.