This month we’re celebrating 50 years of Microsoft, reflecting on its incredible half-century journey from an unknown start-up in Albuquerque to a global leader in empowering people through technology.
But as a proud Kiwi, for me it’s even more special to reflect on Microsoft’s 34 years in Aotearoa, and what the future holds both for our technology and for our country.
I’ve been honoured to be a part of the Kiwi Microsoft family since 2017, but my first experience with Microsoft goes back much further. In the 1990s, I was visiting customers selling physical boxes of Windows 95 on floppy disk for Wang NZ, and there’s no way we would have imagined the technology we take for granted today.
Today’s AI-enhanced chatbots, drones, and other innovations would have seemed like something out of a sci fi movie, but they’re real, they’re here, and they’re already making a huge difference to our lives.
Here in Aotearoa, we’re seeing stand-out AI innovation across a diverse range of industries – innovators like pAI2 are partnering with the Ministry of Social Development on AI tools that can help the long-term unemployed develop professional CVs, get career coaching and find jobs. Inde and PGG Wrightson have launched an AI-powered drone solution that counts livestock, saving farmers days of lost time and money every time they have an audit. Vista Group created the world’s first personalised podcast using AI, so cinema operators could get a 2-minute update on their whole business straight to their car or mobile phone. Volpara is harnessing AI to detect and address cancers and heart disease much faster.
But that’s today. Looking ahead to the next few decades, here are the next possibilities I’m excited by:
The Hyperscale Cloud Era
This officially started in December when we opened NZ North, our first hyperscale cloud region, which was compute power on a scale never before seen in this country. This is enabling local organisations to store, process and back-up their data right here on New Zealand’s shores, protected by world-class security.
With even more hyperscale data centres planned in Aotearoa over the next few years, that’s going to supercharge growth in this country even further.
For every dollar Microsoft invests in building cloud computing infrastructure in a particular market, we see the local economy improving by $8. Imagine a whole hyperscale cloud ecosystem here, and you get a sense of how huge this could be for our economy, and for local businesses who are able to grow on a global scale and deliver more innovation and services to everyday Kiwis. In fact, to cater for this growth, we’ve committed to upskilling 100,000 Kiwis with digital and AI skills over the next two years, so in the future we’ll have a workforce that can make the most of the latest technologies, without leaving anyone behind.
The long-term commitment to hyperscale cloud that we’re making today is also set to incentivise new investment in renewable energy to power these new datacentres. Microsoft’s own agreement with Contact Energy is putting more sustainable geothermal energy into the grid, over and above what we use. The more the datacentre industry grows, the more it will encourage further investment in green energy, for the benefit of our whole electricity infrastructure (and our environment).
The AI Dividend
You can’t unlock the full potential of generative AI without hyperscale cloud – and that we’ve just explored that that potential is huge. An Accenture report last year found that New Zealand could realise a $76 billion increase in GDP by 2038 thanks to generative AI, doubling our productivity. But it’s not just about work.
With both national and local governments adopting AI, we’re also going to see more efficient, but more innovative, public services that can be personalised to every New Zealander. Te Tumu Paeroa, the Office of the Māori Trustee, is looking to harness AI to identify more sustainable and innovative uses of Māori land, helping anticipate challenges and generate solutions.
With this kind of technology, any landowner will be able to engage more with their land, unlocking opportunities for their whānau, but also for the wider economy. That includes how we address the growing challenge of climate change, identifying potential paths to mitigate and address how this is affecting local communities. And imagine a future where people can rely on AI to do the things they don’t enjoy, so they can focus more on the things they do. Microsoft’s Hype To Habit report found 22% of early Copilot adopters were seeing reduced absenteeism due to increased wellbeing.
That’s before we even get to the next exciting step in the AI evolution – agentic AI – which will empower New Zealand to create autonomous agents capable of performing tasks and making decisions independently. These implications are vast, including enhancing healthcare with AI-driven diagnostics and treatment plans (although always with a human in the loop making the final call).
The Quantum Leap
Quantum computing may be the most significant innovation yet.
Sarah Carney, Microsoft ANZ Chief Technology Officer, says it’s going to be even more transformative than AI over the next decade, with the power to solve major societal issues that all the world’s computers together would take decades to do today. This could be anything from solving how to break down microplastics in our oceans to inventing self-healing materials to fix cracks in infrastructure. Picture railway lines that could maintain themselves (and the big savings on our rates!).
However, to leverage all of these technologies over the next few decades, so Aotearoa can see the maximum benefits, is to build trust. Cloud, AI, or quantum computing aren’t tangible things you can just pick up or tread on accidentally, like a floppy disk. This makes it our responsibility to work together with the Government, tech partners, education providers and others to help bring everyone along on the journey and show the art of the possible. With the right approach, the right mindset, and the right skills to embrace new technologies, we have an unprecedented opportunity to change the future in ways we could never have imagined even 50 years ago.
No one knows exactly what the future holds, but we believe that by investing in our people, our technology, and our shared potential, we can build an Aotearoa where innovation drives both economic growth and real improvements in our everyday lives.