Whakarongorau, New Zealand’s leading triage, prevention, and wellbeing provider, is rolling out a new Microsoft Azure AI-powered Welcome service to support Kiwi waiting to connect to human care. Designed to help people feel supported from the moment they make contact, the service will also “help the helpers” and provide frontline teams peace of mind knowing people are being looked after while they wait for help to arrive.
AI that does the groundwork so clinicians can focus on care
Every day, Whakarongorau manages more than 7,000 interactions across its health, mental health, and social services, connecting with more than 735,000 people across Aotearoa each year. Services include Healthline, Emergency Triage, 1737 Need to talk?, and Family and Sexual Harm services. Demand is constantly growing, and the nature of the support people need is also becoming more complex. In Whakarongorau mental health services, for example, people seeking support who are at risk of harming themselves or others, increased 153 percent since 2019, and mental health contacts now take 50 percent longer per session on average.
When kaimahi (staff) pick up a text or webchat contact today, they don’t know who they’re speaking to, why the person is reaching out. That groundwork takes time. Time the person spends waiting. Time the kaimahi spends going over before they can start supporting. And behind every contact, there is the awareness from kaimahi of the next person waiting. The Welcome service does that work first. By the time a trained kaimahi answers, the context is there. They can focus on care from the first moment.
Anna Campbell, Chief Support Services Officer at Whakarongorau, says:
“Across Aotearoa, demand for mental health and wellbeing support is rising, and the complexity of those interactions is rising with it. Our focus has been on how we use technology carefully and responsibly to support both the people reaching out to us and the kaimahi who are there to help them.”
Supporting people as soon as they connect
The Welcome service is how Whakarongorau is answering that challenge. Built on Microsoft Azure AI, it is designed to provide immediate, non-clinical support from the moment someone reaches out to Whakarongorau services.
Here’s how it works: When someone reaches out via text to the national mental health helpline1737, or via webchat to Women’s Refuge, they are greeted by the Welcome service. From the outset, they are clearly told that they are interacting with AI, to avoid any confusion. The Welcome service will then gather background information – contact details and their reason for contacting the service – to keep people engaged and provide useful knowledge to kaimahi when they answer.
Throughout the exchange, Welcome checks in on how the person is doing, reflects back what the person has shared, and gets their permission to offer support such as breathing techniques or other non-clinical support, so they are not waiting in silence. The service has clear boundaries, and will not provide clinical guidance or medical advice, simply “holding” the person with empathetic language to keep them as calm as possible. By the time a trained kaimahi joins the conversation, they have context from the outset. That means less time spent establishing the basics and more time focused on the person and the support they need.
It means more time for the people still waiting, and better quality time for the person already in conversation with trained professionals.
As Anna says, Welcome reflects a clear focus on using technology in a way that strengthens care.
“It is about making the experience more connected, more responsive and more human, even as demand continues to grow,” she says.
Built for the realities of digital care
Welcome will launch in May 2026, starting with SMS in the 1737 Need to talk? service, and in webchat for one of the Whakarongorau-run Family and Sexual Harm services, Women’s Refuge webchat.
Gary Thompson, a mental health and addictions team leader at Whakarongorau, says:
“Welcome helps us get ready for you. Sometimes putting things in writing is easier than talking face-to-face – often that’s why people choose a digital service. With Welcome we’ll know a little more about you, about how you’re feeling, about what you need, and when you start a kōrero, a discussion, with us we will be as ready for you, as you are to tell your story.”
Sarah Carney, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, says the work shows how AI can be applied in a practical way to support services facing increasing demand and complexity.
“Whakarongorau is my favourite example of how an organisation is bringing together AI and cloud technologies to make a real difference in people’s lives.
“This is such a thoughtful application of AI. It’s designed very practically around real service needs, and it’s focused on helping frontline staff spend more of their energy on the things they do best as humans – caring for the people on the other end of a text or webchat interaction.”
A foundation for what comes next
The Welcome service is part of a wider Whakarongorau transformation, marked by migrating to Microsoft’s New Zealand datacenter region to modernise operations, do more with data and enable its AI innovation. Simply moving to the Microsoft datacenter has seen the telehealth provider save $10,000 a month in IT fees, but the real ambition is to strengthen service delivery and improve access for all New Zealanders.
Whakarongorau is also using Microsoft Fabric to create a more connected, responsive model of care, enabling near real-time reporting, helping teams spot surges in demand earlier and respond more quickly. Further development includes exploring workflow tools to reduce administrative load, piloting a Healthline system that can connect people with a local available GP, and using AI assistants to help kaimahi find the right guidance while staying focused on the person in front of them.
Together, these developments are helping Whakarongorau move towards more personalised, accessible support, while giving its teams more time and information to do what they do best.