A former Microsoft leader says New Zealand needs to move faster to make sure Māori have a say in how artificial intelligence is developed and used.
Dan Te Whenua Walker is the founder and chief executive of Toitū AI, a kaupapa Māori consultancy focused on tikanga-led and values-based approaches to AI.
Walker spent several years at Microsoft and helped lead Indigenous at Microsoft, an employee network aimed at increasing indigenous representation within the company.
He was now focusing on how AI can be used in ways that better reflect Māori values and the needs of local communities.
Rather than trying to compete with the major technology companies building large AI models, Walker said there was more value in developing smaller systems for specific uses.
"The kind of AI that we're working with is those focused community-based models that can actually help in areas that truly matter to us,” he said.
But he said the bigger question was not just what the technology could do, but who had a say over how it was built and governed.
That included questions around Māori data sovereignty, which broadly referred to the right of Māori to have control over data about Māori people, communities and resources.
Te Mana Raraunga, the Māori Data Sovereignty Network, said Māori data should be subject to Māori governance and that Māori should be involved in decisions about how that data was collected, stored and used.
Walker said New Zealand already had strong frameworks to draw from.
"We could never compete with the big frontier labs or the big hyperscalers," he said.
"But what we can totally own is when you come to Aotearoa, we have amazing Māori data sovereignty frameworks."
The Government released New Zealand's first dedicated AI strategy in July 2025.
Dan Te Whenua Walker is the founder and chief executive of Toitū AI, a kaupapa Māori consultancy focused on tikanga-led and values-based approaches to AI. (Source: Breakfast)
It had taken what it called a “light-touch and principles-based approach” to regulation, relying largely on existing laws including privacy and consumer protection legislation, rather than introducing a specific AI law.
The strategy also acknowledged the risks AI posed for Māori.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said AI could create opportunities for mātauranga Māori and Māori data but also carried risks including misappropriation and the loss of data sovereignty, particularly where cultural knowledge was used to train AI without consent.
Walker said the country was not moving fast enough to address those concerns.
Asked whether New Zealand was keeping pace on Māori data sovereignty, he said: "No, no. And I think the Government knows that. I think we all feel it as well. It's all moving so quickly."
He said Māori needed to be involved earlier, particularly in the design and development of AI systems.
"If we're going to use it, it should have our values and our mātauranga, our understandings built into it as well," he said.
Walker also wants kaumātua, rangatahi and wider communities involved in decisions around how AI is governed and used.
He said getting that right could put New Zealand in a strong position internationally.
"We can actually be an example to the world in terms of how a nation partners with Indigenous to do AI right for all of us."
SHARE ME