NZQA is exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help us deliver better, faster, and more consistent services - always with a strong focus on ethical and responsible use. Our goal is to ensure AI supports our strategy and brings real benefits to learners, schools, kura, and tertiary providers.
We’re developing AI tools to improve our work in four key areas:
- Strengthening our core functions
- Supporting data-informed decision making
- Creating more value for learners and stakeholders
- Protecting the integrity of assessments and qualifications.
We see AI as a helpful team member, working alongside our people to deliver more personalised, efficient, and high-quality services. We generally consider that AI adoption with ‘human at the helm’.
Some of the tools we’re already using or testing include:
- An AI-powered website chatbot that answers your questions using information from our site.
- Document recognition to help speed up the process of International Qualifications Assessments.
- Automated text scoring, successfully used to mark more than 55,000 Writing assessments in May 2025, with results quality assured by human check-marking.
- Potential future tools like automated detection of exam rule breaches and moderation support for internally assessed work.
Of course, there are challenges. These include technical hurdles, data limitations, and important ethical questions. Above all, we’re committed to building trust – with learners, educators, communities, employers, and our own staff. That’s why we’re taking a careful, phased approach: rigorous development and testing, followed by pilots and trials before any wider rollout.
Our AI development is guided by the five key Public Service AI framework principles:
- Transparency and explainability
- Safety and security
- Human-centred values
- Inclusive, sustainable development
- Accountability.
We have developed our AI framework and a detailed toolkit to support end-to-end AI adoption taking into account security, data ethics and sovereignty and ability to explain the models.
AI offers exciting opportunities to improve how we work and serve our communities. By putting trust, ethics, and people at the heart of our approach, NZQA is building a future where technology supports better outcomes for everyone.