Screen-print illustration of the long left-hand surf break at Manu Bay, Raglan — Illustration generated with AI.

37.80° S, 174.87° E. Waikato District, Waikato (Waikato)

Microsoft Copilot training in Raglan

Raglan’s hospitality, food manufacturing and recycling work each produce handover records. Copilot exercises can connect the right Excel sheet or Teams note to a checked Word summary.^1,3,4

Enquire Read the local brief

68.6% of Raglan’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Raglan	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	68.6%	63.6%	+5.0
3	People-facing	9.7%	9.0%	+0.7
4	Hands-on	21.6%	27.4%	−5.8
5	Employed residents	1,920	2,622,534

About 1,320 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: 3,7202023 Census
Business locations: 549Feb 2025, +38.6% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 1,050at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers: 26.9%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Drive to Hamilton: 44 min47 km by road

What AI means for work in Raglan

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

Workforce by occupation group, Raglan against New Zealand

68.6% of employed residents in Raglan work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. Professionals stand out: 32.8% of employed residents here, against 26.8% nationally. Desk-based roles live in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, which is where Copilot works. A broad rollout has plenty of people to benefit: plan the pilot group and the champions first.

Employed residents by occupation group, Raglan and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Raglan	NZ
Managers	402	20.9%	18.3%
Professionals	630	32.8%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	231	12.0%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	186	9.7%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	174	9.1%	10.8%
Sales workers	111	5.8%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	75	3.9%	5.9%
Labourers	108	5.6%	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).

Hospitality: 29.3% of local jobs, 4.0× the national share

Top employer: hospitality, 310 jobs (29.3%). 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, Raglan and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Hospitality	310	29.3%	7.2%	4.0×
Retail	150	14.2%	9.3%	1.5×
Education	95	9.0%	8.5%	1.1×
Manufacturing	90	8.5%	9.4%	0.9×
Health and social care	80	7.6%	12.0%	0.6×
Other services	75	7.1%	3.5%	2.0×
Professional services	70	6.6%	8.3%	0.8×
Construction	65	6.1%	8.2%	0.8×
Media and telecoms	30	2.8%	1.3%	2.2×
Public administration	30	2.8%	6.4%	0.4×

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 +38.6% and employees +14.1%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 920 (2020) to 1,050 (2025), +14.1% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 396 to 549. Largest job gain: hospitality (+80). Largest loss: manufacturing (−50).

Business locations: 396549 in 2025, from 2020; +38.6% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 9201,050 in 2025, from 2020; +14.1% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Raglan, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Hospitality	230	310	+80
Public administration	3	30	+27
Other services	50	75	+25
Manufacturing	140	90	−50
Farming, forestry, fishing	15	3	−12
Admin and support services	12	3	−9

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

Remote sessions fit how people here already work, and live training over Teams reaches staff across sites.

25.6%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

90.7%

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: 26.9% (New Zealand 16.2%)

A high share of small operators. Copilot suits organisations on Microsoft 365 Business plans, so check your plan before training; Copilot Chat may already be included.

26.9%

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 Raglan’s largest employers

A service manager needs to know which file is current and who owns the next step. That matters when a booking changes, a product total differs or a collection task is reassigned.^3,4

Food manufacturing

Compare a sample monthly production workbook in Excel and give a planner a reviewed exceptions note.³

Waste collection

Turn a fictional Teams discussion into an action list with collection duty, owner and verification step.⁴

About Raglan

Raglan, also known as Whāingaroa, is a west coast town centred on a natural harbour and recognised for its surf breaks, beaches, arts and visitor activity. Waikato District Council describes a mix of locally based businesses and Hamilton commuters, with seasonal visitors adding pressure and trade for hospitality and tourism operators. Raglan Food Co has grown from a small local yoghurt venture into a plant-based food manufacturer with a purpose-built factory on the edge of town. Xtreme Zero Waste is a community enterprise delivering council-contracted recycling and food-scraps services in Whāingaroa, giving Raglan a locally rooted resource-recovery operation as well as a visitor economy.^1,2,3,4

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Raglan

Tourism, hospitality and recreation

Turn conference enquiries into a Karioi room run sheet
A venue coordinator can use Outlook and Word Copilot to summarise incoming group requirements and draft a run sheet from approved booking notes. The coordinator checks timings, room setup and catering before sending it to staff.⁶

Why here: Raglan Sunset Motel advertises tailored conference and workshop layouts for up to 90 guests, so a checked run sheet suits a real local venue workflow.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
Compare Raglan's seasonal booking patterns in Excel
A tourism operator can ask Copilot in Excel to chart anonymised monthly bookings, cancellations and activity types from its own spreadsheet. Managers can then compare busy and quiet periods before adjusting staffing or opening hours.¹

Why here: Waikato District Council notes that summer visitors increase Raglan's population substantially, making season-by-season planning a locally grounded task.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Answer approved guest questions with a venue agent
A venue team can build a Copilot Studio agent over approved meeting, accommodation and facilities documents stored in Microsoft 365. Staff review its answers and keep booking changes in the normal system.⁶

Why here: Raglan Sunset Motel lists conference facilities, accommodation and local activity options that can be captured in an approved guest-information set.
- Copilot Studio agents
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

Food manufacturing (plant-based yoghurt and kefir)

Draft a controlled batch handover in Teams
A production lead can use Teams Copilot to recap a shift discussion and turn approved notes into a handover draft. A supervisor checks lot identifiers and operational instructions before the record is saved.³

Why here: Raglan Food Co describes a dedicated local team producing yoghurt and kefir in its factory, where clear shift handovers can support continuity across production work.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
Spot demand changes across product lines
A finance or operations worker can use Copilot in Excel to compare an internal, de-identified sales and production workbook by product and month. The output can highlight patterns for a human planner to check against actual supply and capacity.⁹

Why here: Raglan Food Co's report describes expansion of its factory and a growing range of products, making product-level planning a specific fit for a local manufacturer.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Search approved product records with a staff agent
A manufacturer can configure a Copilot Studio agent to answer staff questions from version-controlled procedures and product documents in Microsoft 365. It should return the document location and ask the user to confirm any production-critical instruction with the responsible lead.³

Why here: Raglan Food Co operates a purpose-built factory and sells yoghurt and kefir, so retrieval from its own approved manufacturing documents is more useful than generic product answers.
- Copilot Studio agents
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

What Raglan does

Tourism, hospitality and recreation. Council and local visitor information identify surf beaches, harbour activities, arts, cafés, restaurants and accommodation as a distinctive visitor-facing economy. Raglan Sunset Motel offers conference and meeting space alongside accommodation, and the council describes significant summer visitor growth.^1,2,6 Named in public sources: Raglan Sunset Motel⁶.
Food manufacturing (plant-based yoghurt and kefir). Raglan Food Co describes its locally based production of coconut yoghurt and kefir, with a purpose-built factory just outside the township and products distributed internationally. Its 2023 impact report records the decision to build and expand the factory in Whāingaroa to keep the company local.^3,9 Named in public sources: Raglan Food Co³.
Waste services and resource recovery. Xtreme Zero Waste is a Raglan community enterprise that provides recycling and food-scraps collection under contract with Waikato District Council. The 2026 contract also covers rural recycling, litter services, illegal dumping and operation of the Resource Recovery Centre.⁴ Named in public sources: Xtreme Zero Waste⁴.

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

Training venues in and near Raglan

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

Raglan Sunset Motel, Karioi Conference Room⁶

90 people, largest layout

The venue states seating for up to 90 guests; layouts can be tailored for meetings, workshops and conferences.
- broadband
- audio and presentation equipment
- catering
- outdoor courtyard and breakout spaces
- free parking
Raglan Town Hall⁵

460 m² floor area with tables and chairs; people capacity is not stated.
- tables and chairs
- stage
- kitchen
- supper room
- toilets
41 Bow Street, Raglan

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

In the local business news

13 Mar 2026
New waste services contract with Xtreme Zero Waste signed Waikato District Council
Waikato District Council renewed its service agreement with the Raglan community enterprise for 10 years. The contract's broader collection and resource-recovery duties make service data, staff handovers and public information relevant operational topics.
5 Sept 2025
Legendary chip shop up for lease Waikato District Council
The council sought a new operator for Jo's Takeaways at Papahua Reserve after the long-running business closed. The story is a local example of succession and continuity challenges for visitor-facing small businesses.

Around Raglan

Raglan, New Zealand 05 by Michal Klajban, CC BY-SA 4.0.

About 35 km in a straight line to Hamilton, the nearest large centre. Dots are towns covered on this site.

Waikato District and Microsoft Copilot training across Waikato, or Hamilton. Distances are straight-line.

For a Raglan session, use approved or synthetic registers to map file access, draft handovers and responsible sign-off.^3,4

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops near Raglan

There is no public Copilot workshop near Raglan 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 near Raglan

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