Only 48 Percent Of Staff Feel Ready For AI. That Gap Could Cost You Good People.

Just 48 percent of New Zealand employees say their employer has prepared them for the changes AI will bring, according to the 2026 Best Places to Work employee survey released with the awards on 22 October. The spread across industries is wide, with 76 percent of people in technology firms feeling prepared compared with 40 percent in manufacturing and 31 percent in healthcare, and the people who did feel prepared thought noticeably better of their employer, with 70 percent saying they would recommend it as a place to work.

That sits awkwardly next to how quickly organisations are bringing the tools in. Datacom's 2026 State of AI Index, a survey of more than 200 leaders at New Zealand organisations with 100 or more staff published in August, found 91 percent are now using some form of AI, up from 66 percent in 2024. The same survey found that employee concern about AI, including fear of losing their jobs, had become the second biggest barrier to using it more widely. In plenty of workplaces the software has arrived well ahead of any real conversation with the people expected to use it.

For hiring managers in IT, finance, accounting, risk and corporate teams, we think that gap is worth closing now, partly because it is good for your team and partly because the job market is starting to move again.

Why this is showing up now

The services sector, which covers most of the industries we recruit for, has been cautious about adding staff for a long time. The employment index in the BNZ BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index, released on 19 October, came in at 49.8 for September. That is still just under the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, but BNZ notes it is the highest reading since November 2023, which suggests firms are slowly getting closer to adding people again.

When hiring picks up, the people most likely to get a call are the capable, experienced ones already in your team, and anyone with genuine AI experience is likely to be near the top of that list. Job ads are already heading that way. SEEK's September employment report found AI skills referenced in 4.2 percent of all job ads, up 88.2 percent on a year ago, and in 18.8 percent of ICT ads, with mentions of AI ethics and governance climbing 8.5 percent in the month alone.

Put those together and someone who feels their current employer has left them to work AI out on their own has a reason to look around, while other employers are openly advertising for the skills they want to build.

What candidates are asking about

In our conversations with experienced candidates, questions about how a company uses AI come up more often than they did a year ago. People want to know whether they will get proper tools and time to learn them, whether their role is likely to change shape, and whether the business has thought about the risks. A global survey of workers by employment platform G-P, reported by HRD on 23 October, found 58 percent would turn down a job offer if a company's approach to AI did not line up with their own values, and 73 percent wanted their next employer to embrace AI as part of how it works. That is not New Zealand data, but it is consistent with what we are hearing here.

The upshot is that a clear and sensible approach to AI is becoming part of what makes a workplace attractive, in much the same way flexibility became part of it a few years ago.

What preparing people actually looks like

None of this needs a big transformation programme. In the teams we see doing it well, the manager has simply told people plainly where AI is being used, what it is for and what it is not for, and has been honest about whether it is likely to change anyone's role. Uncertainty tends to do more damage than the technology itself, so a straight answer, even an incomplete one, usually goes down better than silence.

The next step is giving people time to try the tools on their real work rather than sitting through a generic demo. A finance team might start with month-end commentary or reconciliations, a risk team with first drafts of policy reviews, and a development team with code review or testing. It helps to let one or two keen people lead and share what they find, and to make it safe for someone to say a tool is not actually saving them time.

Best Places to Work also found that among employees whose feedback had led to change, 81 percent would recommend their organisation. Asking your team where AI could take tedious work off their plate, and then acting on some of those ideas, covers both things at once.

It changes how you hire, too

If you are recruiting in the next few months, expect good candidates to ask how your team uses AI, and have an answer ready that you would be comfortable hearing repeated to their friends. It is also worth being specific in the job ad about which AI skills you genuinely need, rather than adding the term because everyone else is. Our State of the Market Q3 2026 report found the clearest premium in Auckland tech sits with people who have actually built and worked with AI tools day to day, and that group has plenty of options.

For most finance, risk and corporate roles, though, judgement, communication and a willingness to learn will tell you more about someone's future value than a list of tools on a CV.

What this means for hiring managers

AI adoption has moved quickly, and the people side has not always kept pace. As the job market starts to turn, the teams that hold on to their best people will be the ones where staff feel they are being brought along rather than left to figure things out themselves. A frank conversation, some time to experiment on real work and a genuine response to feedback go a long way, and they also make you a more appealing employer when the time comes to hire.

If you are planning to grow an IT, finance, risk or corporate team and want to talk through what experienced candidates are looking for right now, get in touch with the Find team.

Sources: Best Places to Work NZ, 2026 awards and employee survey (22 October 2026); Datacom, 2026 State of AI Index (August 2026); BNZ BusinessNZ Performance of Services Index, September 2026 (19 October 2026); SEEK NZ Employment Report, September 2026; HRD New Zealand reporting on G-P's global workforce survey (23 October 2026, global data); Find Recruitment, State of the Market Q3 2026.

Cover image: "Wocintech stock - 31" by WOCinTech Chat, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.