Screen-print illustration of the near-perfect volcanic cone of Taranaki Maunga — Illustration generated with AI.

Taranaki. 3 districts and cities

Microsoft Copilot training in Taranaki

Taranaki’s energy, engineering and food teams share work through registers, meetings and shift handovers. Copilot can support the Microsoft 365 steps when each source file and responsible reviewer is known.^1,3,4,10

Enquire Read the local brief

59.4% of Taranaki’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Taranaki	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	59.4%	63.6%	−4.2
3	People-facing	8.9%	9.0%	−0.1
4	Hands-on	31.7%	27.4%	+4.3
5	Employed residents	63,642	2,622,534

About 37,800 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: 126,0002023 Census
Business locations: 16,512Feb 2025, +5.5% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 53,445at local businesses, Feb 2025
Towns with a page: 111,000+ residents
Council areas: 3districts and cities

What AI means for work in Taranaki

Taranaki ranks 9 of 16 regions for the share of desk-based roles. Findings from Stats NZ data, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Taranaki against New Zealand

59.4% of employed residents in Taranaki work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. The difference is mostly labourers: 11.3% 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, Taranaki and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Taranaki	NZ
Managers	12,783	20.1%	18.3%
Professionals	14,172	22.3%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	8,751	13.8%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	5,676	8.9%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	6,456	10.1%	10.8%
Sales workers	4,383	6.9%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	4,191	6.6%	5.9%
Labourers	7,215	11.3%	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).

Mining: 2.0% of local jobs, 7.2× the national share

Top employer: manufacturing, 8,587 jobs (16.0%). 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, Taranaki and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Manufacturing	8,587	16.0%	9.4%	1.7×
Health and social care	6,799	12.7%	12.0%	1.1×
Retail	4,668	8.7%	9.3%	0.9×
Construction	4,447	8.3%	8.2%	1.0×
Education	4,241	7.9%	8.5%	0.9×
Farming, forestry, fishing	3,840	7.2%	4.8%	1.5×
Hospitality	3,800	7.1%	7.2%	1.0×
Professional services	2,927	5.5%	8.3%	0.7×
Public administration	2,348	4.4%	6.4%	0.7×
Other services	2,121	4.0%	3.5%	1.1×

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 +5.5% and employees −0.2%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 53,530 (2020) to 53,445 (2025), −0.2% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 15,657 to 16,512. Largest job gain: health and social care (+1,015). Largest loss: admin and support services (−663).

Business locations: 15,65716,512 in 2025, from 2020; +5.5% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 53,53053,445 in 2025, from 2020; −0.2% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Taranaki, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Health and social care	5,784	6,799	+1,015
Finance and insurance	896	1,209	+313
Public administration	2,067	2,348	+281
Admin and support services	2,236	1,573	−663
Transport and warehousing	2,166	1,898	−268
Construction	4,712	4,447	−265

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

Both on-site and remote sessions work. Most teams start with a half-day on-site.

18.8%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

88.2%

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.

Council areas in Taranaki, compared

Share of employed residents in desk-based roles, by district

Desk-based share by district, Taranaki
District or city	Share	NZ
New Plymouth District	61.2%	63.6%
Stratford District	56.1%	63.6%
South Taranaki District	55.2%	63.6%

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

Towns and cities in Taranaki

Each has its own page and local brief. Largest first, by residents at the 2023 Census.

Towns in Taranaki
Town	Residents	Desk-based	Business locations	Since 2020
New Plymouth	58,000	62.0%	6,795	+6.5%
Hāwera	10,400	49.2%	1,107	+2.2%
Waitara	7,510	47.0%	333	+0.0%
Stratford	6,330	50.1%	582	+7.8%
Inglewood	3,800	56.5%	294	+18.1%
Eltham	2,100	41.4%	246	+67.3%
Ōakura (New Plymouth District)	1,760	73.4%	273	+21.3%
Ōpunake	1,480	50.9%	141	+2.2%
Pātea	1,320	40.5%	75	+4.2%
Manaia	1,080	46.5%	48	+6.7%
Normanby	1,040	41.7%	57	+0.0%
New Zealand	4,993,923	63.6%	654,435	+9.6%

Microsoft Copilot for Taranaki’s largest industries

A Word note drawn from Excel needs its open items and original rows intact. Set SharePoint access to approved material and have a technical owner check every decision-bearing detail.^1,4

Energy and engineering

Turn a sample Excel work-order register into a Word status note, leaving unresolved equipment items for the engineer.^4,10

Dairy and food processing

Summarise a permitted Teams shift discussion into actions for production and quality staff to confirm.^1,3

About Taranaki

Taranaki's regional economy draws on its natural resources, with dairying, manufacturing and other land-based activity prominent in the Regional Council's account of the region. The council reports that manufacturing accounts for 12.9% of the workforce, health care and social assistance 10.2%, construction 10.1%, and agriculture and fisheries just under 10%. Venture Taranaki's Tapuae Roa action plan sets regional priorities across energy, food and fibre, Māori economy, visitors, and new industry and investment. The Taranaki Alliance links local engineering, manufacturing and specialist service firms to pursue large industrial contracts, while Port Taranaki reports that energy trade changes are reshaping its cargo mix.^1,3,6,10

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Taranaki

Energy production and services

Prepare a bid pack from approved project files
A bid lead can use Word and Microsoft 365 Copilot to turn approved project records into a first draft of a response structure, then ask Outlook and Teams Copilot to organise follow-up actions for the bid team. The commercial lead checks every requirement and commitment against the source documents before submission.^10,16

Why here: The Taranaki Alliance is coordinating regional industrial firms to pursue large contracts, including a newly announced MoU with Supacat.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Copilot in Outlook
- Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
Turn asset reports into a monthly operations brief
An operations analyst can ask Copilot in Excel to surface changes in an approved maintenance or service spreadsheet and use PowerPoint Copilot to prepare a concise monthly review. Engineers verify the calculations and add context before managers circulate it.^3,4

Why here: Energy is a regional priority, and Venture Taranaki describes local capability spanning engineering, geology, procurement, electrical work and IT.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPoint
Keep multi-firm project actions together
A project coordinator can use Teams Copilot to summarise meetings and draft action lists, then maintain a shared delivery tracker in Loop. The project owner checks decisions and assigns responsibility before the notes become part of a formal record.¹⁰

Why here: The Alliance brings separate regional engineering, manufacturing and technical suppliers together to pursue complex industrial work.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Loop

Food and fibre production and processing

Read seasonal patterns in farm records
A farm adviser or production manager can use Excel Copilot to explain patterns in a suitably authorised seasonal workbook and draft a chart for a planning discussion. The farm team checks source entries and keeps identifying or commercially sensitive records within its approved environment.¹

Why here: Taranaki Regional Council describes dairying on the ring plain and sheep and beef farming in hill country.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPoint
Draft a clear supplier and staff update
A food or fibre business can use Word Copilot to draft a plain-language update from approved production notes, then use Outlook Copilot to prepare separate messages for suppliers and staff. A manager checks dates, quantities and commitments against the live schedule before sending.³

Why here: Tapuae Roa identifies a regional Food and Fibre Future and emphasises local value chains.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook
Answer staff questions from current farm guidance
A team can prototype a Copilot Studio agent grounded in approved company files to answer routine questions about documented work practices. A subject-matter lead checks its answers and updates the source files when guidance changes.¹

Why here: The Regional Council publishes land and farm guidance for Taranaki, including farm planning and freshwater management topics.
- Copilot Studio agents
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

What Taranaki does

Energy production and services. Venture Taranaki describes Taranaki as an established energy hub with specialist skills and infrastructure across engineering, geology, procurement, electrical work and IT. Port Taranaki's 2024-25 result describes the effect of reduced bulk-liquid volumes on the port's trade mix.^4,6 Named in public sources: Port Taranaki⁶.
Food and fibre production and processing. Dairying dominates farming on Taranaki's ring plain, while sheep and beef farming are important in hill country. Tapuae Roa identifies a Food and Fibre Future priority and regional actions to develop local value chains.^1,3

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

Training venues in and near Taranaki

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

Pukeiti Rata Room²

90 people, largest layout

Up to 90 seated; 60 can be seated with a view of the screen.
- projector
- screen
- sound system
- onsite catering
2290 Carrington Road, New Plymouth

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

In the local business news

Taranaki economy down, but optimism trending up Venture Taranaki
Venture Taranaki reports continued pressure on energy, metal product manufacturing and professional services alongside a strong estimated dairy payout. This gives regional businesses a current prompt to examine sector exposure and diversification plans.
Industry cooperative hits the ground running - Taranaki Alliance signs MoU with Supacat Venture Taranaki
Venture Taranaki describes a memorandum of understanding linking the Alliance with engineering and defence vehicle company Supacat, with a possible pathway for regional fabrication, machining, assembly, systems integration and logistics services. The story gives local manufacturers a concrete example of supply-chain diversification.
Council backs industry-led collaboration to transition Taranaki engineering and manufacturing sector Venture Taranaki
New Plymouth District Council approved seed funding for the Taranaki Alliance, a regional platform intended to help firms compete for complex industrial work beyond traditional oil and gas markets. It is a local example of economic transition supported through shared commercial capability.
Port Taranaki announces 2024-25 financial result Port Taranaki
Port Taranaki reports that lower bulk-liquid volumes affected trade during 2024-25, while bulk dry products and log exports supported revenue. The report offers a local case for using data tools to monitor changing trade and operational scenarios.

A Taranaki workplace session can trace an authorised record through Excel, Teams and Word with a check at each handover.^1,4

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops in Taranaki

There is no public Copilot workshop in Taranaki 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.

Tell me when there is a workshop in Taranaki

We will email you when a public workshop is scheduled nearby. No other mailing.

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