Ministry for Regulation issues AI guidance for regulators

The Ministry for Regulation has issued AI guidance for regulators, which the regulation minister says will enable regulators to do more, and do it faster.

The guidance said AI would work best in low-risk uses, such as triaging and prioritising cases, or validating data against clear rules.

Humans would still be required for judgement, legal interpretation, and accountability.

"New Zealand's public service is bloated, snowed in by red tape and inefficient. The AI guidance will help us address those problems. An efficient public service that gets bang for taxpayer buck is important to Kiwis," regulation minister David Seymour said.

The Responsible AI in Action guidance said AI adoption should not be treated as an IT project, and regulatory leaders should be clear on the problem AI was solving, what outcomes it supported, and what guardrails needed to stay in place to protect trust and accountability.

Not all AI was the same, and the differences would matter for regulators.

"Used well, AI can help them work more efficiently. AI can do powerful work. It analyses at scale, drafts at speed, and surfaces patterns people might miss," Seymour said.

"Ultimately, regulatory decisions still rely on human judgement, legal interpretation, and accountability. That's why regulators need to know how to use it, when use is appropriate and how to set up AI tools for the best chance at success."

The guidance said that AI would not fix a weak system, so if the regulatory foundations (such as clear delegations and decision rights, or effective oversight) were weak, AI would make problems bigger, faster, and harder to explain.

In contrast, if regulatory foundations were strong, AI could scale good practice.

The guidance asked regulators to work through whether the benefits were relative to the cost, and what might happen if the AI system performed poorly or produced unreliable outputs.

It also asked regulatory leaders to consider four ethical principles around transparency, fairness, privacy, and te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Last week, Seymour released a report from the ministry showing there were 267 regulators across New Zealand.

While the report offered no specific solutions to what Seymour called a "twisted spaghetti," it urged further work on defining the country's regulatory landscape.

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