Why the AI age could supercharge New Zealand’s leisure economy

Saturday, 10 January 2026

Public fear has greeted every major invention, from steam trains to smartphones. Yet each transformed life for the better.

Dr Michael Turner is a data scientist and strategist at Freshwater Strategy

If, like me, you’ve felt a little guilty about enjoying the summer break while everyone else is hyperventilating about AI, then relax, and get back to your Hokey Pokey. History suggests you’re probably right to ignore the hysteria.

Humans have a particular skill for inducing anxiety out of uncertainty. Every major technological shift seems to trigger the same ritual panic, and humanity always then emerges from the noise, not as an army of jobless drones, but as a species with improved work conditions, better leisure time, and more of it.

Here is my totally unverifiable and unaccountable prediction; the AI-age will be no different.

No, AI isn’t hype. And it’s definitely not a blip. It’s the next railway, the next computer, the next mobile phone, except this shift might finally help us answer that ancient riddle: how do we work less, but live more?

So, why don’t we take a brisk stroll through the past two centuries of technological “doomsday” to see how the latest chapter of our human progress thriller, will end.

Exhibit A: The Railways. When trains arrived in the 1830s, the public reaction made today’s AI chatter look positively level-headed. Steam power, the Victorians said, would annihilate the horse-drawn transport industry, it would crater small towns, and probably melt human faces from the sheer speed of these locomotives should they ever break 50kph (no joke). However, top hats firmly in place, the railways gave rise to entirely new industries. Hospitality and travel turned into something approaching fun. Scenic journeys, dining cars, holidays for the masses, the Orient Express. Steam power didn’t kill human mobility; it turned it into a lifestyle.

Exhibit B: Computers. In the 1970s, everyone was certain computers would destroy professional white-collar work. “Where are all the typists, the switchboard operators, and filling clerks” I hear precisely nobody cry. At the time people felt the computer-age would turn offices into dystopian data centres, with blinking machines flattening human spirit out of the workspace. Instead, digital tools have increased coordination, improved flexibility, and quite deliciously, they have increased leisure opportunities.

While filing systems have in no way improved, files themselves are at least a lot easier to find. “Digital nomading” has kept our offices freer of toxic “Chad” types who love to explain precisely how to execute a Romanian Deadlift to their colleagues. “Cyberloafing”, once seen as a moral failing, is now a scientifically validated productivity enhancer. No, computers didn’t dehumanise office life; instead, they allowed us to take a quiet breather at work, without having to feign productivity by lingering around the photocopier.

Exhibit C: Mobile Phones. Remember when smartphones were going to wipe out leisure entirely by making workplaces omnipresent? Well, that didn’t age too well either. Sure, we all know someone who desperately wants you to know how busy they are by interrupting your coffee catch-up to write a “super urgent work email”. But let’s not throw mobile phones out with the bathwater because some of us continue to have zero social skills.

Studies show that reasonable mobile phone usage actually reduces stress and creates “micro-leisure” moments throughout the day. How many of you are reading this article on your phone right now? Add in mobile alerts to take a break and get your step-count up, LinkedIn job searches over lunch, and Candy Crush on the toilet. Well, if that’s technological dystopia, then sign me up.

And now the public frenzy turns to AI; the latest in a long line of technologies accused of plotting to liquidate the workforce. The pattern repeats itself so perfectly, it’s almost comical.

But here’s the part that no one in the panic-industrial complex wants to say out loud: New Zealand is positioned to win, and win big, in this global AI-age.

Why? Because the global leisure, tourism, and hospitality economy is exploding, and AI supercharges every part of it: personalised travel, smart itineraries, immersive experiences, cultural storytelling, and next-generation visitor attractions.

And what about us Kiwis, I hear you ask? Well, New Zealanders are already world-class consumers of online leisure; six digital hours a day, heavy streaming habits, and rising spending on digital experiences, the domestic market is pleading for smarter tech.

Research commissioned by Microsoft shows that generative AI could add $76-$108 billion to the national economy by 2038. That’s no rounding error; it’s an entirely new economic sector. You weave in New Zealand’s renewable energy advantage, and that makes Aotearoa a prime destination to be “Land of the big data cloud”.

Kiwi expertise in agriculture and tourism means that New Zealand can build world-leading AI applications, that the world actually wants. Viticulture’s not my bag, but I’m pretty sure winemakers would choose specialist tech made by experts from Wairau Valley over Silicon Valley, if given the chance.

Thankfully, the Government’s AI Strategy is already in place. Light-touch and business-friendly, it’s a positive step designed to help businesses actually use AI, rather than fear it. But for business the gains are already clear, even if the public hasn’t quite caught up emotionally. A global survey of CEOs published by PWC in 2025 shows that 56% of businesses that have adopted AI, have seen improved efficiencies from employees. This figure rises to 70% among CEOs in New Zealand.

Yes, AI will likely change everything. But, if history is any guide, then it won’t destroy our way of life; it will simply upgrade it.

The railways gave people destinations. Computers gave people flexibility. Smartphones gave people a pocket-full of entertainment. AI will give people time. Better quality, and more of it.

If New Zealand plays this right, then the country won’t just adapt to a global leisure economy; it can be an influential player and make a buck from it too.

I reckon it’s time to stop panicking about AI and start planning. The AI-age isn’t coming for our jobs. It’s coming for our holidays; and it’s going to make them better.