ELMO 2026 HR Industry Benchmark Report — Aotearoa New Zealand

Our flagship report is now in its seventh year — and this year, the lens is sharper. We surveyed 337 HR professionals across Aotearoa New Zealand to understand what’s really happening with AI in the workplace. Not the ambition. The reality. The findings reveal three persistent gaps between AI adoption and measurable workforce impact.

What’s inside the ELMO 2026 HR industry benchmark report

The AI Capability Gap

 New Zealand leads in AI adoption (against Australia), 86% of organisations and 96% of HR teams are now using AI. Yet two-thirds use it only occasionally, and of those who expected AI to be transformative in 2025, fewer than half say it delivered. Adoption is widespread but shallow.

Theme 1: Readiness vs effectiveness 

New Zealand’s AI Effectiveness Index (71) outpaces its Readiness Index (66), a gap that suggests AI momentum is running ahead of the structural foundations needed to sustain it. Individual capability is strong, but data integration and system centralisation remain opportunities to strengthen.

Theme 2: Leadership expectations vs HR reality 

HR and leadership broadly agree on how HR is performing. But only one in four HR leaders feel fully equipped to deliver on AI expectations. The constraint isn’t perception or alignment,  it’s resourcing. Skilled people, budget and time to experiment remain the top barriers.

Theme 3: Adoption vs measurable impact 

Almost all (99%) NZ HR professionals report tangible improvements from AI, the highest rate in the region. But depth is shallow: two-thirds use AI only occasionally, and the most commonly cited gains are skills mapping, performance support and predictive analytics. The shift from operational efficiency to strategic workforce impact is still underway.

Download the New Zealand report

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Unpack the findings — live

The AI Capability Gap: Why adoption isn’t translating to impact 

Thursday 26 March | 2pm NZ | 60 mins

Dr Amantha Imber and ELMO’s Chief People Officer Anne Tosky will interrogate what the data means in practice. Amantha’s day job is helping organisations turn GenAI from a shiny object into daily productivity gains. Anne leads AI transformation at ELMO as “customer zero.” Together, they’ll explore why behavioural change may be the real bottleneck, and what the highest-performing organisations are doing differently.

Register for the webinar →