Digital Skills in the Age of AI

New Zealand’s digital skills challenge has entered a new phase. What was once described as a ‘leaky pipeline’ is now better understood as a structural national challenge with weak foundations, fragmented pathways and insufficient coordination between education, industry and government. This matters because advanced digital skills are now essential to New Zealand’s productivity, export growth, cyber resilience, AI capability and long-term economic growth. In the age of AI, every sector needs people who can build, secure, govern and improve complex digital systems. The message from this report is clear: AI does not reduce the need for advanced digital skills, it increases it.