My View - Bringing tikanga to technology

VIEW - Troy Baker, senior ICT specialist, Hauora Māori Services, Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora 

Three years ago, I started working with an algorithm I called Smart Māori, extracted from ChatGPT.  

What began as a simple experiment has evolved into something I never expected: a way to operationalise tikanga through artificial intelligence, making technology more accessible and culturally grounded for our people. 

When Health NZ offered 40 Copilot licenses to Hauora Māori Services staff I saw an opportunity so I asked for those 40 licenses, then went back asking for more and we now have 170 amongst our 200 staff.  

Finding your level on the digital shoreline 

I approach everything through a Māori lens first, rather than trying to embellish Māori elements onto existing products. Like our tamariki learning to harvest on the beach, starting with safe pūpū before progressing to kūtai, then diving for kina, and eventually reaching pāua and kōura when they are truly skilled, I see succession in everything. 

You need to identify where everyone is in their digital journey and start there. You can't be ahead of yourself or behind yourself, you are where you are, so I created space for people to sit, observe, and listen without judgment.  

That's where BroPilot came from, giving Copilot a face change to make people curious rather than scared. 

What started as a two-week interim training program while waiting for Microsoft's official sessions has now been running regularly since November last year. 

The first thing I get people to do is put their job descriptions into Copilot to define their KPIs, understand alignments, and clarify reporting structures. Instead of ambiguous weekly goals, we get granular: what exactly are you doing, how many, who is involved, and by when? 

Aligning with tikanga 

I have created personas within the BroPilot whare that align with tikanga principles and others have built their own to reflect their roles and functions.  

Mine 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.  

These personas remove deficit thinking and are mana-enhancing. Where Western audits often catch people out for discipline, our approach is about "shaking the trees and lifting the mats." When teams are fatigued, we practice the concept of emptying our pockets of everything unaddressed, being completely honest, reviewing skill sets, and delegating to clear the decks. 

Protecting Mātauranga while enabling access 

I have built agents such as a service improvement tool that provides a rubric for application quality and mana-enhancing feedback. Rather than rejecting poor applications, it guides people to strengthen them. 

One of my most significant creations is He Kāmaka Waiora, based on a 35-year-old document by Dame Naida Glavish. This agent provides practical tikanga-aligned guidance for non-Māori, for the interim, as Māori kaimanaaki become available. 

The beauty is that creators maintain full control of their mātauranga. No one else can access the knowledge within their agents and when people create something useful, their name stays attached to it. 

Humanising the digital experience 

I am not building all these tools myself: I am teaching people to build them for their specific purposes. My training is steeped in tikanga first, if people do not align with protecting our mātauranga, I direct them to mainstream training until they are ready. 

The return on investment should be the people, with efficiency as a byproduct. We are enabling voices that have been missing, particularly our neurodiverse and introverted whānau. People with literacy challenges can now be poets because they can talk to the device: they can be storytellers, articulate feelings, and have a confidant. 

I test as an introvert in everything, but te ao Māori has countered that limitation. When a reluctant Pākehā gentleman left my session with an agent he called Rufus (from Bill and Ted's Adventure) for testing coding insights, I knew we were onto something. 

Pushing potential over perfection 

When people criticise AI because it is not perfect, I remind them: I don't care if it is perfect, it is about the journey. Instead of pushing perfection, push potential.  

Our whānau who are nowhere near their own marae would excel in this space because of how they innovate and think, having multiple ways of looking at problems. 

We have always had to make do with what we have. Give us one capability like Copilot, and we will make it work in ways others have not imagined. I was not even coding six months ago or creating agents two years ago, but I did all of this without permission. 

When I faced resistance, people saying, "that's not Māori," I responded, "cool, you do you" as I will not let others' opinions stop progress. Two years later, those same people are asking for help and manaaki. 

Creating experiences, not just training 

While others focus on numbers and digital enablement, I am creating experiences.  

Last week, I put my out-of-office on with a sign saying the whakawhangaungatanga continues. Fourteen people still turned up and talked to each other and that is when I knew we have built something sustainable. 

BroPilot is not just about making AI accessible, it is about ensuring our people are not left behind in the digital transformation while maintaining the integrity of our tikanga. It is about reciprocity, finding that point where different worldviews can agree and move toward the right thing together. 

That is what I am most interested in: creating pathways for our people to thrive in digital spaces while remaining authentically Māori. 

Read more about BroPilot in eHealthNews. 

Read more VIEWS

Return to eHealthNews.nz home page