Unlike other countries, there isn’t a drawn-up national technology plan. This matters because countries that do better at digital transformation have established clear goals and measures at a national level to track their progress.
It means that despite having world-class digital infrastructure, a measure where New Zealand rates highly, it has struggled to make the most of the productivity benefits digital technologies can bring.
New Zealand’s productivity is among the worst in the developed world.
Bold Steps
At the recent Bold Steps conference, Hodson explained how Spark worked with the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) to understand what advanced digital technologies could do for the nation.
A 20% increase in the use of advanced digital technologies could boost GDP by 2%.
Industry output could be $26 billion higher over the next decade.
To get there it needs business leaders to embrace technology and implement it. We also need to learn to use these technologies in our everyday lives.
That requires some effort.
The NZIER research shows generative AI is the biggest knowledge gap for New Zealand business users when it comes to advanced digital technologies.
Close to half of business leaders, 44%, feel they lack enough information to make use of it.
It’s not just about productivity.
AI and climate change
Digital technology can play an equally important role as New Zealand deals with climate change challenges.
In 2022, a research programme conducted by Spark and thinkstep-anz found that digital technology could help reduce 7.2 million tonnes of emissions by 2030.
This is more than 40% of the reductions New Zealand needs to meet its emissions budget for that year.
As a snapshot of how this can work, Hodson pointed to MyEnviro which uses Spark’s IoT network to operate a digital platform in the Hawke’s Bay Mangaone catchment area.
It covers 25 farms, 25,000ha and four rivers. There are IoT sensors, a weather station, geographic data and real-time analytics.
They all combine to give farmers real-time updates on soil health, water quality, emissions, fertiliser use and pasture growth.
Armed with this information farmers can make better decisions about running their operations. They know when it is the best time to plant,
Bold steps towards the future exactly where to deal with fencing or erosion issues. They get improved water and soil quality.
Hodson says this is a small example, but if this kind of environmental monitoring was extended across the motu, it would have a huge impact.
Similarly, we can make improvements to roads, the electricity grid, homes and more.
“Being able to see what is happening in the environment around us in real-time would be a huge asset in our response to climate change,” says Hodson.
IoT has been described as “the skin of the planet”. Like skin, it gives us early warning signs that alert us to respond accordingly.
Another example uses AI to search and summarise research papers on brain cancer from around the world. This does months of work for researchers as they look to help develop different treatments.
Artificial intelligence is the key to ramping up performance.
It takes a human five hours to read 7500 words. AI can do the same in a minute.
Until recently AI was expensive – and inaccessible to most businesses. You needed $500,000 to get a project off the ground. That meant five or more AI experts and a two-year wait until the project delivered value.
Today one person, paying a $20 monthly subscription could get the same project to the point where it delivers value in less than a week.
The arrival of low-cost, accessible AI is a huge leveller.
There are challenges to overcome and disruption.
There always are new technologies. It can be used well or it could be used to distort and deceive.
Spark gets around this by putting governance structures in place to make sure the business uses AI in ways that are ethical and responsible.
But the more people with good intentions who are using this technology and skilled in its application, the better off we will all be.
Which is the challenge.
Research shows a lack of technical and day-to-day AI skills is the main barrier to implementing AI. This has to be fixed to make sure New Zealand doesn’t fall behind.
