How are MPs using AI? The party using it the most, the MP with his own AI server and the one using Grok in Question Time
Monday, 27 April 2026
Politicians from across the spectrum have talked up the potential of AI, but a survey of MP usage shows few are using it for much more than occasional research tasks and editing.
But some MPs are going as far as to host their own AI services - while one is using Grok to understand Parliament while it is sitting.
The Post asked every MP in Parliament a series of questions about how they were using AI - either in their office or personally.
It specifically asked about the use of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok, which have revolutionised many workplaces in recent years and attracted billions in investment.
Forty-one of 123 MPs came back to The Post individually, while the 26 MPs in the Green Party and ACT answered the survey through a party-wide response.
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National had the most individual responses of any party, with 20 MPs or offices replying, and all but two of them using AI in some way. Labour had 18 individual responses, with again two MPs saying they did not use AI at all.
NZ First returned just two responses — both saying they did not use AI — while Te Pāti Māori did not respond at all.
What tools are they using?
By far the most popular tool was Microsoft’s Copilot, which is provided by Parliamentary Services. 48% of the MPs who responded individually said they were using Copilot in some way.
This included the office of the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, which said through a spokesperson that staff used Copilot for transcription.
It was followed by ChatGPT, which was used by 12 of the MPs who responded individually.
The ACT Party refused to share which tools it was using both as a party and as individual MPs. A spokesman said this would see them lose a competitive advantage.
“We won't be sharing the names of the tools we use. We're competing against parties who would make life in New Zealand worse, and we don't want to give them ideas on how to be more effective,” the spokesman said.
The Green Party’s collective response suggested the party used Claude in a limited way but their main use case was captioning social media videos, with tools like CapCut and Edits that have AI features built in.
What are they doing with them?
The most popular use-case for AI cited by MPs was “research” - which 55% of the individual MPs who used AI cited in some manner.
Researching topics is at the core of developing new policy or new attack lines in the House. Parties generally have research teams or staffers but many MPs will undertake their own research too.
Relatedly, 45% of the individual MPs used AI for summarising documents, which can be broadly seen as a research task. MPs must trawl through a barrage of annual reviews, research reports, and other documents in select committee roles and to generate attack lines and policy - making this kind of summarising unsurprising.
A similar proportion (48%) suggested they used AI for proofreading, while relatively few (27%) suggested they used it for any kind of actual drafting of written content.
The ACT Party’s collective response suggested the party utilised AI in a wide array of uses.
“We sometimes use AI to assist in content creation, drafting, and policy research,” a spokesman said.
“We also use AI as a tool to supplement our library of photos and stock images, however our preference is to use real photography where possible.”
The Green Party’s collective response suggested a very limited use of AI - other than for in-built tools for transcribing videos for social media.
“MPs occasionally use AI (Google, Claude) to check translations and for internet searches, and built in functions where it’s impossible to avoid, like searches and summaries.
“Green MPs and their staff do not use AI for speech-writing, writing emails, or policy development.”
Labour MP Duncan Webb said he was using AI for research but found it didn’t help much with speech-writing.
“I have tried using it for speeches etc, but it just is not as insightful, funny, and personable as I am.“
The unique use cases - from learning te reo to learning Parliament
Some MPs were using more esoteric tools or using tools in more interesting ways.
National MP for Ilam and former molecular biologist Hamish Campbell had created his own AI server where he ran a “number of LLMs”, according to a spokesperson.
“Hamish is proficient in machine learning and AI having taught data science, long before LLMs,” the spokesperson said.
“He has set up his own self-hosted AI server which is capable of running a range of LLMs. Primarily Hamish uses it for research, comparison analysis and summarising.”
National MP for Bay of Plenty Tom Rutherford had fed Parliament’s complex standing orders and Speaker’s rulings into Grok, the AI tool built into X - formerly Twitter.
He said this allowed him as a first-term MP to better understand what was happening in the House in real-time.
“Doing this allows me to search and check details whilst the House is sitting. When a point of order pops up in the House referencing a specific standing order or speakers ruling, I can search straight away, which not only helps in the moment but helps me remember it for next time,” Rutherford said.
Labour MP for Christchurch East Reuben Davidson had a paid subscription to Contented, a New Zealand AI company from Christchurch, which he said he favoured as it didn’t use user data to train its model. He used it for transcription and organising data.
And National MP for Maungakiekie Greg Fleming was using a paid ChatGPT subscription to learn te reo Māori.
“I’ve been learning for 10 years and appreciate the AI’s indepth understanding of grammar. It’s one of the best reo teachers I’ve had,” Fleming said.
“It’s also quite a good conversation partner although I’m looking forward to when there’s a NZ accent – or even iwi-specific.”
National Minister Chris Bishop responded with an AI-generated image of himself using Copilot- which you can see at the top of this article.
Guard rails
The Post asked MPs about what guard-rails were placed around AI usage, and almost everyone who responded said serious ones were.
These guard-rails largely included not putting confidential information into LLMs and having a human check any outputs.
These included the collective responses from ACT and the Greens.
The Green Party said AI was not used at all for speech-writing, email-writing, or policy development. The ACT Party said it had internal guidelines in place to safeguard accuracy and ethics.
“Any AI-assisted material is reviewed closely, fact-checked, and edited by our team before being released for the wider public. Team members understand that they are held responsible for the quality and accuracy of any AI-assisted material they produce,” the ACT spokesman said.
The ministers who responded generally suggested they followed Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) guidelines The Post has previously reported on.
These strict guidelines make clear that enterprise AI tools “must not materially contribute to decisions that could lead to an adverse outcome for an individual.”
They also mandate transparency - any document materially produced or edited by AI “must be labelled as having had AI input”.
The handful who did not mention formal guard-rails generally responded with very little detail, or said some variety of “common sense” applies.
The MPs who aren’t using AI
And many MPs clearly are not using AI - either not responding to the survey or responding in the negative.
Two NZ First ministers - Shane Jones and Casey Costello - both had their offices say they did not use AI.
Two Labour MPs - Kieran McAnulty and Camilla Belich - and two National MPs - Miles Anderson and Paul Goldsmith - said they did not use AI, with McAnulty saying he “wouldn’t know where to start”.