Copilot Training NZ, home
Screen-print illustration of the central clock tower among Hastings’ Art Deco buildings
Illustration generated with AI.

39.63° S, 176.83° E. Hastings District, Hawke's Bay (Te Matau-a-Māui)

Microsoft Copilot training in Hastings

Hastings firms work with manufacturing records, clinic information and changing city-centre projects. A Copilot worksheet can keep the source file and reviewer attached to each draft.5,7,10,26

Enquire Read the local brief

52.7% of Hastings’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

Role typeHastingsNZDiff (pts)
Desk-based 52.7% 63.6% −10.9
People-facing 10.6% 9.0% +1.6
Hands-on 36.7% 27.4% +9.3
Employed residents23,5772,622,534

About 12,400 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.
Residents
47,7002023 Census
Business locations
4,143Feb 2025, +8.7% since 2020
Employees (jobs here)
25,990at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers
9.2%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Drive to Napier
17 min19 km by road

What AI means for work in Hastings

5 findings from Stats NZ data for Hastings, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Hastings against New Zealand

52.7% of employed residents in Hastings work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. The difference is mostly labourers: 15.4% of employed residents here, against 9.0% nationally. Size the licences to the desk-based roles rather than headcount. A pilot with office, scheduling and management staff shows value before you pay for everyone.

Employed residents by occupation group, Hastings and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation groupChartPeopleHastingsNZ
Managers 3,060 13.0% 18.3%
Professionals 5,214 22.1% 26.8%
Technicians and trades workers 3,162 13.4% 12.5%
Community and personal service workers 2,505 10.6% 9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers 2,325 9.9% 10.8%
Sales workers 1,827 7.8% 7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers 1,839 7.8% 5.9%
Labourers 3,639 15.4% 9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Health and social care: 20.8% of local jobs, 1.7× the national share

Top employer: health and social care, 5,425 jobs (20.8%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Hastings and New Zealand, February 2025
IndustryChartJobsShareNZ×
Health and social care 5,425 20.8% 12.0% 1.7×
Manufacturing 3,502 13.4% 9.4% 1.4×
Retail 2,564 9.8% 9.3% 1.1×
Education 2,209 8.5% 8.5% 1.0×
Construction 2,060 7.9% 8.2% 1.0×
Admin and support services 1,950 7.5% 4.6% 1.6×
Public administration 1,234 4.7% 6.4% 0.7×
Hospitality 1,190 4.6% 7.2% 0.6×
Professional services 1,136 4.4% 8.3% 0.5×
Wholesale 905 3.5% 5.0% 0.7×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Business locations +8.7% and employees +6.2%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 24,465 (2020) to 25,990 (2025), +6.2% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 3,813 to 4,143. Largest job gain: health and social care (+1,103). Largest loss: farming, forestry, fishing (−556).

Business locations
3,8134,143 in 2025, from 2020
+8.7% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here)
24,46525,990 in 2025, from 2020
+6.2% NZ +5.0%
Change in employees by industry in Hastings, February 2020 to February 2025
IndustryChart20202025Change
Health and social care 4,3225,425+1,103
Education 1,9702,209+239
Admin and support services 1,7131,950+237
Farming, forestry, fishing 1,408852−556
Hospitality 1,3051,190−115
Arts and recreation 313254−59

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

On-site sessions, at your workplace, usually suit teams here better than remote ones. We come to you.

9.4%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

87.2%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Self-employed and employers: 9.2% (New Zealand 16.2%)

Most workers here are employees of organisations, the setting where Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts are planned centrally, with licences, policy and champions.

9.2%

self-employed or employers

New Zealand 16.2%

Employed residents whose status in employment is employer, or self-employed without employees.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Copilot for Hastings’s largest employers

A local team can use Word and Excel to move from an approved product record to a response checklist. The file owner still validates technical or clinical details.5,7,10,26

Packhouse automation

Use an Excel service log to prepare a Word equipment handover, with technical questions assigned to engineering.5

Clinic software and health services

Draft a Teams clinic-support note from an approved SharePoint guide and label who checks patient-facing wording.7,26

About Hastings

Hastings city combines technical manufacturing, clinic software, regional services and a busy central business district. Hawk Technology builds AI-assisted apple-packing robots in Hastings, and Florence Digital is a Hastings software company whose self-check-in kiosks are used at Hastings Health Centre. The city centre is also seeing staged investment: Hastings District Council describes commercial space and public connections at 200 West Block, while Tumu Property is developing a mass-timber office building on Lyndon Road. Stats NZ's February 2025 figures show the wider Hastings District has 1,653 agricultural, 1,167 construction and 933 professional-services business units; those territorial-authority totals do not describe Hastings urban SA2s alone. The Hastings City Business Association represents more than 450 CBD businesses and supports events, promotion and member networks.1,5,7,8,10,11,13

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Hastings

Packhouse automation and horticultural machinery

  • Compare synthetic camera-inspection results

    An automation engineer can use Copilot in Excel to compare a fictional sample of fruit grades, surface defects and machine rejects, then ask which combinations deserve a closer look. The team treats the chart as a test prompt and checks the actual equipment and quality rules before changing a setting.5

    Why here: Hastings-built Hawk Technology apple packers use 15 AI cameras to inspect fruit, so a simulated camera-results worksheet reflects a real local machine-vision product.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel

  • Draft a machine-commissioning checklist

    A field technician can use Copilot in Word to turn an approved equipment manual into a first-pass checklist for inspection, installation, training and sign-off. A qualified engineer validates all limits and safety steps against the original supplier document.5,6

    Why here: Hawk Technology designs and assembles its packhouse equipment in Hawke's Bay, making machinery documentation a locally relevant workflow for its supplier and service network.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
    • Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

  • Prepare an install-day shift handover

    A project lead can use Copilot in Teams to organise a consenting practice meeting into installation tasks, unresolved questions and customer follow-ups. The lead confirms each owner and date with the technicians before using the handover on a real line.6

    Why here: Hawk Technology describes design-to-installation packhouse solutions, so a handover from a Hastings-built machine's installation is a specific scenario for a local automation team.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams

Healthcare and digital clinic services

  • Turn a non-clinical huddle into actions

    A clinic manager can use Copilot in Teams to draft actions from a practice discussion about check-in flow, signage and reception workload. The exercise uses a mock meeting without patient names, symptoms or clinical records, and staff confirm each action before sharing it.7

    Why here: Florence Digital's self-check-in product is used at Hastings Health Centre, so non-clinical workflow improvement is a locally grounded training context.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams

  • Simplify a clinic's arrival instructions

    A service lead can use Copilot in Word to rewrite an approved arrival guide for patients who need a large-print or plain-language version. A clinic staff member checks every direction and contact detail before the guide is distributed.7

    Why here: Florence Digital lists multilingual check-in and patient-information features, making clear kiosk instructions a useful task for a Hastings clinic workflow session.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
    • Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

  • Review a synthetic arrival-time pattern

    An operations analyst can use Copilot in Excel to chart invented appointment arrivals, queue lengths and no-show markers by time block. The team uses the display to discuss staffing questions without analysing an identifiable patient or making a clinical decision.7,26

    Why here: The Ministry lists Hawke's Bay Hospital's services in Hastings and its 364 beds, while Florence's kiosk page describes local appointment check-in; both support a service-flow training scenario.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel

What Hastings does

  • Packhouse automation and horticultural machinery. The Hastings District 2025 business chart records 1,653 agriculture, forestry and fishing units, a district-wide figure rather than a city count. Hawk Technology manufactures post-harvest equipment in Hastings, including a robotic apple packer that uses 15 AI cameras to inspect fruit and sort it by colour and quality.1,5,6 Named in public sources: Hawk Technology5.
  • Healthcare and digital clinic services. Hastings is the location of Hawke's Bay Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, which the Ministry of Health lists with 364 beds and medical, surgical, mental-health, children's and maternity services. Local software business Florence Digital supplies clinic check-in tools, and Hawke's Bay Today reported its kiosk at Hastings Health Centre.7,8,26 Named in public sources: Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora Hawke's Bay26, Florence Digital8.
  • Construction and commercial property. The Figure.NZ chart records 1,167 construction units for Hastings District as a whole. In central Hastings, Tumu Property is developing a four-storey mass-timber office building at 300 Lyndon Road, and the Council describes a separate staged project at 206 Queen Street West with office and commercial space, housing and public space.1,10,11,12 Named in public sources: Tumu Property11, Lattey Group12.
  • Professional, technical and regional business services. Hastings District had 933 professional, scientific and technical business units in the February 2025 chart, not a Hastings-city subtotal. The Council describes Hastings city as a base for professional services, call centres and regional head offices, and names Kiwibank, Datacom and Fingermark among businesses that have arrived in the city in recent years.1,3,23,24 Named in public sources: Datacom3, Kiwibank3.
  • City-centre retail, food and hospitality. The 2025 territorial-authority chart records 528 retail and 414 accommodation and food-services business units across Hastings District. In Hastings city, the Business Association represents more than 450 CBD businesses and its 2026 Meatball Festival listing names local bakers, butchers, chefs and cooks as vendors.1,13,15

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Training venues in and near Hastings

Most training happens at your own workplace. For a public workshop day or an off-site session, these places hire out rooms.

  • Hastings Sports Centre, function room20

    150 people, largest layout

    The Council advertises the function room for meetings and corporate events; capacity is 150 and the room has 50 chairs and 10 tables.

    • television
    • surround-sound speakers
    • whiteboard
    • 50 upholstered chairs
    • 10 tables

    503 Railway Road, Hastings

  • Toitoi, Te Mata Room19

    36 people, largest layout

    The venue chart lists classroom capacity 36, theatre capacity 35 and boardroom capacity 16.

  • CitySpace Hastings24

    Coworking space

    The site offers hot desks, permanent desks, private offices and a boardroom; a meeting capacity is not stated on the page read.

    113 Heretaunga Street East, Hastings

  • Canvas Coworking14

    Coworking space

    The Association's Hastings listing gives the address and describes a bookable coworking desk and separate meeting room; room capacity was not stated.

    203 Queen Street East, Hastings

  • Hastings HIVE23

    Coworking space

    The site lists 23 private offices, two boardrooms, five meeting rooms and two video-conferencing suites; room capacities are not specified on the home page.

    200 Market Street, Hastings

  • Bad Company Workspace14

    Coworking space

    The Association's Hastings listing describes a four-person meeting room, an eight-person boardroom and a phone booth.

    120 Karamu Road North, Hastings

From the venues’ own public listings. No booking or relationship is implied.

In the local business news

  • Hawke's Bay-made apple robots find a booming US market Farmers Weekly, reporting by RNZ

    Farmers Weekly reports that Hastings manufacturer Hawk Technology is scaling exports of its robotic apple packers, which use AI cameras to inspect fruit. The article gives local businesses a concrete example of machine vision moving from a Hastings factory into international packhouses.

  • Sustainable new office development announced for central Hastings Hastings District Council

    Hastings District Council announced that Tumu Property will build a 5,000-square-metre mass-timber office at 300 Lyndon Road, with the Council taking office space in the building. The project is a local example of commercial construction, private investment and a new central workplace.

  • Shared IT project promises savings for Hawke's Bay councils Hawke's Bay Regional Council

    Hawke's Bay Regional Council reported a shared technology-services project initiated by Hastings District Council and involving two other councils. The proposal focuses on modernising ICT systems and describes future potential for data sharing and analytics.

  • Hastings City Business Association lists its 2026 Meatball Festival Hastings City Business Association

    The Association's event page places the festival on Heretaunga Street East and describes local bakers, butchers, chefs and cooks serving food alongside music and pop-up drinks. It is a current example of a city-centre event designed around local food businesses.

Around Hastings

Hastings CBD Oct 2023
Hastings CBD Oct 2023 by Jakob | TheLoyalOrder, CC BY-SA 4.0.
HaumoanaWaipāwaWaipukurau Napier Hastings
About 14 km in a straight line to Napier, the nearest large centre. Dots are towns covered on this site.

Hastings District and Microsoft Copilot training across Hawke's Bay, or Napier. Distances are straight-line.

A Copilot session in Hastings could map product and service documents to separate reviewers before any reply is sent.5,7,10,26

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops near Hastings

There is no public Copilot workshop near Hastings on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

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Microsoft Copilot training in Hastings: questions

Which packhouse automation file should a Hastings Copilot team start with?

A sample Hawk Technology issue register could feed a Word update on apple-packing equipment; reconcile each open item with its source row.5

Who should review a Hastings Copilot handover for clinic software and health services?

The Hastings clinic software and health services record owner should verify the Excel or Teams source before sharing a handover.7,26

How could Hawk Technology share an equipment update?

A sample Excel issue log could supply a Word status note on packhouse automation; the equipment team should reconcile open items.1,5,6

Train your team in Hastings

  1. ScopeHeadcount, sites, Microsoft 365 plan and licences, and the teams you want to start with.
  2. PlanWe propose a course, a pilot group and a format, and agree the files and meetings to use.
  3. TrainOn-site or over Teams, in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, with your own work.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Hastings. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

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Sources

Local research checked 29 September 2026. Population and business figures come from Stats NZ.