How much, if any, is the total budget in the Minister's departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any, for the 2026/27 financial year on artificial intelligence- including costs on training staff, deploying systems, maintaining subscriptions and any other associated costs?

Answer

The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) meets costs associated with artificial intelligence (AI) through existing departmental baselines and investment programmes. I am advised that for 2026/27, Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing was added to the Ministry’s existing Microsoft agreement at a cost of $160,670.95 per annum. The Ministry also maintains the Student Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tool (SMART), with an AI-related component costing $1,858,333 per annum. Costs associated with training staff in AI-enabled tools are incorporated within broader workforce capability activities and are not separately identified. New Zealand Qualifications Authority has budgeted a total of approximately $2.7 million on artificial intelligence costs in the 2026/2027 financial year. Education New Zealand (ENZ) has allocated $125k to fund an AI Discovery and Decision Layer Pilot Programme in the 2026/2027 financial year. This programme will deliver a set of AI discovery and decision-layer pilots that will ultimately be used to influence international students and their parents’ when using AI in their information gathering and decision-making stage on international study destinations. In addition, ENZ has allocated $42k to fund the use of Microsoft Copilot for staff. The Education Review Office (ERO) that it has not finalised its budget for artificial intelligence for the 2026/2027 financial year. ERO currently meets costs through existing departmental baselines and investment programmes.