Artificial intelligence adoption in New Zealand healthcare is lagging the wider business sector, despite most healthcare organisations using the technology reporting significant productivity gains, according to new research commissioned by Amazon Web Services.
AWS’s Unlocking New Zealand’s AI Potential 2026 report found 44 per cent of healthcare businesses surveyed had adopted AI, compared with 50 per cent across New Zealand businesses overall.
However, 63 per cent of healthcare businesses already using AI reported significant or transformative productivity gains, while 71 per cent expected AI to transform large parts or all of their industry within the next five years.
The report found healthcare had one of the widest gaps between the perceived potential of AI and organisations’ preparedness to deploy it at scale.
Only 11 per cent of healthcare businesses described themselves as ready for next-generation AI technologies, compared with 17 per cent nationally.
Meanwhile, nine per cent had a formal and comprehensive AI strategy, while 47 per cent were not confident they had the leadership and expertise required to scale AI over the next three years.
Thirty-nine per cent said they had no AI skills or were only beginning to develop them, while 46 per cent provided no formal guidance to non-technical employees using AI.
Data privacy and security concerns were cited as a barrier by 51 per cent of healthcare respondents, followed by uncertainty about how existing laws apply to AI at 42 per cent and uncertainty about legal liability if AI makes mistakes at 38 per cent.
The findings show AI adoption across New Zealand businesses has reached 50 per cent – up from 42 per cent in 2025 and 34 per cent in 2024.
Across all sectors, 69 per cent of businesses adopting AI reported productivity gains and 84 per cent reported an increase in revenue. However, only 15 per cent of New Zealand businesses had a formal AI strategy and 61 per cent had no dedicated AI budget.
AWS New Zealand country manager Manuel Bohnet said the focus among businesses was increasingly shifting from adopting AI to determining how it could change their operations.
“The conversations I’m having have shifted from ‘how do I use AI?’ to ‘how do I use AI to change my business?’” Mr Bohnet said.
He said businesses with a formal AI strategy were beginning to separate themselves from organisations still experimenting with the technology.
The research found businesses with a formal strategy were more than twice as likely to have reached advanced AI adoption, at 41 per cent compared with 19 per cent of AI adopters overall. They were also more likely to be able to measure return on AI investment and to consider themselves ready for the next generation of AI technologies.
Mr Bohnet said moving from experimentation to having a strategy in place was now a key challenge for New Zealand businesses.
The report recommends accelerating AI readiness in sectors including healthcare – by making results from early adopters more visible, developing sector-specific skills pathways and ensuring guidance reflects the operating environment of individual industries.
The survey also found strong public expectations for the use of AI in healthcare.
Sixty-three per cent of New Zealanders believed AI would largely or completely transform healthcare, while 52 per cent selected healthcare as the sector they most wanted to see benefit from AI in their local area – the highest result for any sector.
The research was conducted by Strand Partners for AWS and surveyed 1000 New Zealand business leaders and 1000 nationally representative members of the public.
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