Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora turns Copilot into “BroPilot”, supporting Māori ways of working with AI

Health New Zealand is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest employer, with around 80,000 staff supporting public healthcare for more than five million people. Within Digital Services’ Hauora Māori team, AI tools are being used in ways that are culturally appropriate for Māori.

Taking a uniquely Māori approach to customising and deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot, the team now refer to it as “BroPilot”. It’s a friendly guide grounded in Kaupapa Māori and a practical productivity tool, being used with confidence by Māori and non‑Māori team members alike.

Bringing trust into AI – “learning in a swimming pool”

Every healthcare organisation knows the huge opportunity AI presents to drive productivity and innovate with service delivery. However, how can a machine be trusted to understand cultural nuance, or support a Māori worldview and practice within a huge organisation? 

For Hauora Māori Services, teams were managing a high workload across reporting, assurance, governance and programme design, while also wanting to ensure any use of AI reflected Māori values, supported culturally safe practice, and aligned with expectations around data and security.

While workers were used to the regular suite of Microsoft 365 tools, such as Word or Outlook, there was a degree of hesitancy, scepticism or even fear about using a new tool like AI. From the start, Senior ICT Specialist Troy Baker designed a programme to support team members to build their capability in a safe, guided way.

He instituted regular drop-in sessions for people to learn by doing. With a secure Enterprise Copilot subscription, that meant people could bring their real documents that they needed help improving, test prompts, and make mistakes without fear.

“It’s like learning in a swimming pool rather than out in the moana (the ocean). We know Microsoft has done its due diligence on security, so thanks to the Enterprise Copilot environment, we could create safety without all the elements being shared on the worldwide web,” Troy explains.

Rather than asking people to adapt to the technology, the programme was designed to meet them where they are, building confidence over time and applying AI in ways that make sense for their role. Simple things such as starting sessions by asking people to create pictures or personas using prompts were a visual way to bring the possibilities to life. Troy also encourages team members to put their own work-based KPIs and job descriptions into Copilot to create a visual representation of their goals and roles. 

“We did not want this to feel like a technology programme happening to people. The focus has been on helping our teams explore AI through real mahi, in ways that reflect how they already work and what they need support with,” Troy says.

“The thing that’s really important to me as a Māori is to influence other Māori to adopt AI using matauranga Māori. We started with honest conversations grounded in values and what matters most to people. Once people start using it in their own context, the shift is quite different. It becomes less about the technology itself and more about what it can help you do.”

But building confidence and engagement using Copilot was just the first step. Troy and a team of more than 200 specialists with knowledge of Māori tikanga (protocols and values) customised the platform using knowledge and language resources to become a true digital reflection of te ao Māori (the Māori world). The foundational document used to train the AI was Dame Naida Glavish’s Tikanga Best Practice Guidance. Using this material, they got Copilot to create 16 measurable standard operating procedures grounded in Māori culture and values.

That then created a robust framework for everyone to put their AI learnings into practice.

Turning complexity into clearer work

As a result of this “give it a go” experimentation mindset, rooted in creating safe, practical pathways for team members, Copilot has now become “BroPilot”. It’s a trusted tool used by the whole Hauora Māori Services team every day. Within their BroPilot “whare” (house), many have created agents and personas that reflect them, their role and functions, each excelling at performing certain tasks. For example, Troy has created distinct AI personas such as Smartmāori, for research and deep thinking, Nanny, for warm, human-centred advice on kaupapa, Coco, day to day tasks, and Doc, to create polished, executive-level documents. 

BroPilot is helping people speed through administrative tasks in their day. It’s being used to summarise long documents, pull out actions, clarify responsibilities, improve the structure of reports, and turn dense material into clearer outputs that are easier to use and review.

That is reducing cognitive load as well as saving time. For teams working across governance, assurance and programme delivery, clearer drafts and more consistent outputs mean less rework, less fatigue, and more space to focus on the substance of the work.

Ronald Karaitiana, one of the team members who undertook training, described starting out cautious about AI, unsure whether it would dilute thinking, accountability, or kaupapa Māori.

“What changed was seeing Troy introduce AI not as a replacement for thinking, but as a partner, positioned within Māori values, governance and accountability. Once I saw AI being applied to my actual documents, meetings and reporting responsibilities, rather than just abstract examples, I saw AI could actually strengthen my judgement rather than shortcut it,” Ronald says.

Ronald is now using BroPilot – his favourite persona is called Pāua – not only to turn drafts and conversations into executive-facing documents, but to check the completeness of his reports and ideas, identify gaps or weak logic and generally provide a second pair of eyes that understands both corporate and governance requirements as well as Māori culture.

For those from different cultures, BroPilot has also become a valuable tool to sense-check what Māori tikanga applies to certain healthcare scenarios, such as when a Māori person is nearing the end of their life. Kaimahi (staff) caring for them can then take culturally-relevant actions that raise trust and support the wellbeing of both patients and their whānau (family).

The best testament to how easy it’s been for the team to adopt is that Troy himself never learned to code – he has simply picked up and used Copilot by experimenting, like everyone else.

Sarah Carney, Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft ANZ, says the programme shows how Microsoft 365 Copilot can be applied in ways that meaningfully reflect local cultures and priorities, while also driving real business or clinical outcomes.

“What I particularly love about what Health New Zealand is doing, is that they’re taking a thoughtful and practical approach to using Copilot that puts people at the centre. This is a world-leading example of how to make supposedly “faceless” AI totally relevant to local people and healthcare workers, through really smart and sensitive engagement upfront and a robust governance structure that clearly sets out principles for how it should be used,” she says.

“BroPilot is a strong example of how Microsoft 365 Copilot can help reduce complexity in everyday work, and support humans to do what they do best.”

Building a model for what comes next

While BroPilot has been developed within Hauora Māori Services, the thinking behind it has wider relevance. It shows what can happen when AI is introduced in a way that is guided by cultural context, shaped around real work, and designed to ensure no one is left behind.

With around 80,000 employees across Health New Zealand, the inclusive Hauora Māori Services model forms a blueprint for how healthcare and admin workers throughout the organisation could adopt AI safely and effectively. While it will take time to roll out the secure enterprise version of Copilot to the entire workforce, that could potentially help with a huge range of new applications from treatment planning to medical research. Troy would love to see this model applied to many different uses beyond the organisation as well, anywhere cultural values are particularly important.  

One of the most powerful effects of the platform has been its impact on staff retention in what can be an incredibly stressful profession. Feedback from BroPilot users is that they are feeling happier and more supported, which Troy hopes will help keep them within the Health NZ whānau.

“As I tell people in our drop-in sessions who are feeling hesitant, if you choose to stay behind on the AI journey, your tamariki (children) will also be left behind. The great thing with this is that people can start at any level – it’s just about putting AI into practice. It’s less like a system, and more like a companion on your journey,” he says.