While it was a relatively hardscrabble, blue-collar upbringing, “Everybody was always welcome in our home, everybody was treated equally, everybody was fed. And it brought to me a great sense of community. And that really led me to want to take this job,” Livesey said.

“How do you make such a big transition in this world, in our country, in a way that benefits all? How do we bring trust and safety and ethics to what we do? That’s a big part of what gets me out of bed in the morning, and what made me want to take this job.”

Livesey graduated from Lincoln with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1991. A corporate career has seen roles with IBM, PwC, Accenture and Cognizant before she recently landed at Microsoft.

In Microsoft-commissioned research, Accenture modelled three potential AI adoption pathways in New Zealand, ranging from slow to rapid business uptake.

By 2038, annual economic benefits could reach between $39b and $102b, highlighting AI’s potential to materially lift national gross domestic product (GDP) through productivity (New Zealand’s gross domestic product in 2025 was $445 million, according to Stats NZ).

The scale of this uplift depends on how quickly and widely businesses adopt AI. At the midpoint, it would lift GDP per capita by 14% to $114,000.

The uplift assumes up to 275 hours could be “unlocked annually per worker to reinvest on high-value tasks” thanks to generative AI products, including Microsoft’s Copilot.

Skills shortage

What could stop New Zealand getting that $102b boost?

“One of the biggest things for New Zealand is access to skills,” Livesey said.

The Microsoft New Zealand Economic and Social Impact Report, compiled by EY for Microsoft and released this morning, says: “A 2023 study found that 70% of surveyed New Zealand organisations seeking AI skills reported difficulties in finding suitable talent, underscoring the need to strengthen education and training pathways to support digital transition and lift productivity.”

There have been many tech workers “freed up” since 2023, with mass layoffs due to Covid-era over-hiring, recession and, ironically, some attributed to AI, but skilled artificial intelligence roles remain tricky to fill.

Upskilling 200,000

Our Government’s AI strategy is largely hands-off. Livesey says Microsoft provides more than 3000 online courses for people looking to upskill – many are free. The effort pledged as Microsoft negotiated fast-track OIO consent for properties for its data centre operation.

Microsoft has reached three quarters of the 100,000 goal set in December 2024 and Nadella said today his firm is expanding access as it doubles that goal to 200,000 by 2028.

We’re also not topping up the skills funnel with as many people as we could. The report also notes the under-representation of a number of groups, including Māori, in the IT workforce.

It says Microsoft partnered with the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) to deliver creative technology micro-credentials designed to strengthen the creative sector’s talent pipeline across West Auckland.

The six-month programme supports secondary schools and kura kaupapa Māori by equipping teachers and students to use digital creative tools, including Copilot, for research, ideation, scriptwriting and content creation.

49,700 jobs

The EY report says that in the 2025 financial year:

The report says Microsoft New Zealand has 342 staff across its Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch offices and its data centre business.

It doesn’t mention Microsoft’s local financials.

According to Companies Office filings, Microsoft New Zealand reported revenue that increased by 17% from $1.32b to $1.54b for the year to June 2025, as net profit rose 13% from $47.4m to $53.4m.

Microsoft 6399 NZ, formed to run the company’s data centre business in Northwest Auckland, reported revenue that rose 61% from $133.8m to $215.5m.

The subsidiary made a net profit of $33.6m, compared with its $16.3m loss the previous year.

Both subsidiaries are owned by Microsoft Ireland Research (which took control of the New Zealand operation from a Bermuda-registered Microsoft subsidiary in 2021).

Microsoft’s first local “hyperscale” data centre opened in late 2024 on a 4ha site it bought at 7 Kakano Rd, Westgate – near the Costco – in Auckland’s northwest.

The tech giant won’t officially acknowledge the location of the $1b facility, despite it appearing on various public documents, citing a global security policy.

The tech giant also received Overseas Investment Office permission (in 2022) to buy a $15m, 6ha site at nearby 151 Brigham Creek Rd, opposite the Whenuapai air base, but has not built anything yet.

Livesey would not comment on progress with the second site, or whether her company is co-locating with other data centre operators to complete its “zone” of three independently-powered facilities.

Although Microsoft’s massive New Zealand infrastructure is shrouded in secrecy (and the data centre sector as a whole has proved difficult for major party leaders to get their heads around), Livesey is happy to give examples of its wider business and that of its partners.

Microsoft-only partner Arinco NZ, which has helped the likes of Les Mills and Port Otago with AI transformations, has doubled its revenue in the last 12 months, expected to hit over $6m in the 2026 financial year.

And Livesey says 32 New Zealand Government agencies are now using Copilot – which, according to EY’s report, is saving users an average nine hours a month on routine tasks.

She also namechecks Westpac NZ’s AI makeover of its call centre using Microsoft products – one of the first upgrades of its type in the world and one that has yielded efficiency gains of up to 30% in internal trials.

“One of the greatest examples I’ve seen is the Te Whatu Ora [Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora] adoption of Copilot. They’ve created BroPilot. This was an initiative by one of the Māori health groups to really to look at how we make Copilot very inclusive, and start to look at cultural specific instances that really reflect what is important to the values of the New Zealand indigenous culture.”

BroPilot also tackled security and data sovereignty.

“To me, those are great examples of how we’re just moving out of those initial phases of ‘let’s just use these tools and gain information and productivity’ to ‘how do we take quite an inclusive view to embedding AI within the way that we live and work’,” Livesey said.

Avanade lands in NZ

This week’s AI Tour also sees a long-standing Microsoft partner launch in New Zealand.

Avanade, which offers IT consulting and managed services, was launched in 2000 as a 50:50 joint venture between Anderson Consulting (which would be rebranded as Accenture the following year) and Microsoft.

Today, it’s 80% owned by Accenture and 20% by Microsoft, Jeyan Jeevaratna, who will run the local operation (on top of the Avanade Australia operation he already controls) said. And in keeping with the times, it’s now tightly focused on the cloud and AI.

Accenture offers consultancy services for a broad range of Big Tech companies’ wares.

“What we bring to the table is hardcore Microsoft skills,” Jeevaratna said.

“But we also are able to expand that ecosystem. So it’s not just about Microsoft or Copilot, but also OpenAI and Claude, obviously, having a major impact in the marketplace … our approach is start with something that you feel comfortable with, and if it is a Microsoft platform, great, but keep it open that you can actually leverage other models as needed.

“Sometimes we may even go work with a client, initially on the Microsoft platform, and they may then say, can you implement Workday here? [Workday is an enterprise AI used for the likes of HR and financial planning], So then we may actually bring in Accenture in to do that implementation.”

In some countries, Avanade has its own offices but, at least for its early days, its New Zealand operation will be run out of Accenture.

Avanade has more than 500 staff in Australia, the Sydney-based Jeevaratna said.

It’s starting in New Zealand with about 20, with near-term plans to grow to around 40 or 50.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.