As reported by RNZ, a global report by Employment Hero reveals New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of AI adoption at work compared to the UK, Australia, and Canada. While Kiwi workers are increasingly using and upskilling in AI tools, many are hiding how much they rely on them, with more than a third feeling guilty about using AI despite acknowledging it makes their work better. Employment Hero general manager Neil Webster says employers have a significant role to play in normalising AI use and creating environments where workers feel confident to adopt it openly.
Key Insights
- 38% of NZ employees say using AI at work feels like cheating
- 37% feel guilty using AI to produce high-quality work, the lowest guilt rate of any market surveyed
- 42% worry that using AI makes them replaceable to their employer
- 32% present AI-generated work as their own without disclosing it
- 28% use AI tools without their company knowing
- 51% of Kiwi workers have taught themselves AI skills through platforms like YouTube and TikTok
- 57% say AI is helping them develop more valuable skills
- NZ has a comparatively low rate of AI adoption versus the UK, Australia and Canada
- Workers with the most AI competence are described as the most conflicted about using it
- Employers who provide clear guidance and celebrate productivity gains are seeing higher AI confidence among staff
Our Thoughts
The NZ AI adoption at work data from Employment Hero is a fascinating snapshot of a workforce caught between two competing impulses: the practical recognition that AI makes work better, and the cultural anxiety that using it somehow makes you less legitimate as a professional. Both impulses are understandable. Neither is particularly useful if you are trying to run a competitive business in 2026.
Start with the guilt figure. Thirty-seven percent of Kiwi workers feel guilty using AI to produce high-quality work. This is actually the lowest guilt rate of any market surveyed in the Employment Hero report, which means New Zealand workers are less conflicted than their counterparts in the UK, Australia, and Canada. But 37 percent is still more than one in three. If you have a team of ten people, statistically, three or four of them are quietly uncomfortable every time they use a tool that makes them more productive. That discomfort has real consequences: it drives concealment, it slows adoption, and it prevents the kind of open conversation that would actually help businesses figure out how to use AI well.
The concealment numbers are the part of this story that should concern employers most directly. Twenty-eight percent of NZ workers are using AI tools without their company knowing. Thirty-two percent are presenting AI-generated work as their own. These figures are not primarily a moral issue; they are a governance and quality control issue. When employees feel they need to hide what tools they are using to do their jobs, it is usually because the organisational environment around those tools is ambiguous, uncertain, or implicitly disapproving. The result is that employers have no visibility over how work is actually being produced, no ability to set standards for AI use, and no way to catch the cases where AI output needs more human review before it goes out the door.
The self-teaching trend is both encouraging and instructive. Fifty-one percent of Kiwi workers have taught themselves AI skills through YouTube, TikTok, and similar platforms. This is a significant number, and it tells you that the motivation and curiosity are there. Workers are not waiting for their employers to lead on AI capability. They are going out and building it themselves, quietly, on their own time. The question for business owners is whether that self-directed upskilling is being channelled productively or whether it is simply generating a shadow AI practice that nobody in leadership knows about.
The NZ AI adoption at work gap relative to peer countries is worth interrogating. New Zealand’s comparatively low adoption rate is unlikely to be about access or awareness. AI tools are widely available, affordable, and increasingly embedded in standard software packages that most businesses already use. The more plausible explanation is cultural: a combination of risk aversion, uncertainty about what is appropriate, and a default professional norm that values visible effort over efficient output. These are not insurmountable barriers, but they do require deliberate action from employers rather than passive hope that adoption will happen on its own.
Webster’s advice is practical and worth taking seriously. Employers who provide clear guidance on how AI should and should not be used, who celebrate the productivity gains AI enables rather than treating them with suspicion, and who create environments where questions about AI are welcomed rather than avoided, are seeing better outcomes meaningfully. This does not require a comprehensive AI strategy document or a dedicated technology team. It requires a conversation, a clear position, and a willingness to treat AI as a normal part of how work gets done rather than something exotic and vaguely threatening.
For Black Arrow’s clients, particularly those running professional services firms, creative agencies, or IT businesses, NZ AI adoption at work is not a future consideration. It is a present competitive reality. The businesses pulling ahead right now are the ones where AI is openly discussed, sensibly governed, and enthusiastically applied. The ones falling behind are the ones where it is happening in the shadows because nobody has dared to bring it into the light.
Our Questions for You
- Over a quarter of NZ workers are using AI tools without their employer knowing. As a business owner, does that surprise you, and what would you do differently if you knew it was happening in your team right now?
- The most AI-competent workers are also the most conflicted about using it. Does this suggest that the guilt around AI adoption is primarily a cultural problem that employers need to address, or is there a legitimate professional concern underneath it that deserves more serious examination?
- New Zealand’s AI adoption rate lags behind the UK, Australia and Canada. Given that AI is widely accessible and affordable, what do you think is the single biggest barrier holding NZ businesses back from adopting it more confidently?
