Culturally-grounded 'BroPilot' developed by Hauora Māori Services

NEWS 

Hauora Māori Services within Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora has transformed Microsoft 365 Copilot into ‘BroPilot’, an artificial intelligence tool grounded in tikanga Māori to support its staff.

The programme, led by Senior ICT Specialist Troy Baker, customised the platform to become a true digital reflection of te ao Māori, using Dame Naida Glavish's Tikanga Best Practice Guidance as its foundational document to create 16 measurable standard operating procedures that reflect Māori culture and values.

"The thing that is really important to me as a Māori is to influence other Māori to adopt AI using mātauranga Māori," Baker says. 

"We started with honest conversations grounded in values and what matters most to people."

Hauora Māori Services teams manage high workloads across reporting, assurance, governance and programme design.

Baker started regular drop-in sessions where staff learn by using real documents in a secure Enterprise Copilot environment. He says this allows people to test prompts and make mistakes without fear.

"We did not want this to feel like a technology programme happening to people," he explains. 

"The focus has been on helping our teams explore AI through real mahi, in ways that reflect how they already work and what they need support with."

The sessions begin with visual exercises such as creating pictures or personas using prompts, then progress to practical applications like putting job descriptions and KPIs into Copilot to create visual representations of goals and roles.

Within the BroPilot "whare", staff have created agents and personas that reflect their roles and functions. Baker’s AI personas include Smartmāori for research and deep thinking, Nanny for warm, human-centred advice on kaupapa, Coco for day-to-day tasks, and Doc for polished, executive-level documents.

Ronald Karaitiana, a team member who completed the training, says he was initially cautious about AI and whether it would dilute thinking, accountability or kaupapa Māori.

"What changed was seeing Troy introduce AI not as a replacement for thinking, but as a partner, positioned within Māori values, governance and accountability," Karaitiana says. 

Karaitiana now uses BroPilot with his favourite persona called Pāua to transform drafts and conversations into executive-facing documents and provide oversight that understands both corporate and governance requirements as well as Māori culture.

Feedback from BroPilot users shows they feel happier and more supported, which Baker hopes will help keep them within the Health NZ whānau.

Sarah Carney, chief technology officer for Microsoft ANZ, says "this is a world-leading example of how to make supposedly “faceless” AI totally relevant to local people and healthcare workers, through really smart and sensitive engagement upfront and a robust governance structure that clearly sets out principles for how it should be used".

Image:  (Top) Troy Baker and Ronald Karaitiana meeting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft AI Tour in Auckland, (Bottom) Senior ICT Specialist Troy Baker speaking at the Microsoft AI Tour in Auckland

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