PM talks up AI and China ties at China Business Summit

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon used an appearance at the China Business Summit in Auckland on Thursday to push two messages at once: that some New Zealand businesses are dragging the chain on artificial intelligence, and that deepening trade ties with China is more important than ever in an increasingly volatile world.

Speaking at a Q+A session at the China Business Summit 2026, Luxon said the world was more "contested, fragmented and volatile." He told the audience this wasn't an abstract concept but something being felt daily in shifting supply chains and changing regulatory environments, with trade increasingly used as a tool of leverage in a fragmenting global economy.

The PM also described New Zealand's relationship with China as "consequential" and important at a time of global economic strain, saying the country would cooperate and maximise cooperation wherever possible, disagree where it must, and manage differences in a predictable and consistent way. He noted China remained New Zealand's biggest market, with dairy, meat and wood exports continuing to thrive.

But he also flagged a shift under way in the relationship. "The next phase of the China story, without doubt, is premiumisation, it's branding and innovation," he said, pointing to changing consumer preferences as China's middle class grows. He said Kiwi businesses needed to keep moving up the value chain  something already happening through digitally provided education and food innovation, with more opportunity ahead from agri-tech to gaming , and that "these are not future opportunities, they're here today."

His message to assembled business leaders was clear : China is a premium market, so all you need to do is engage with it – and don’t wait for assistance from the government before doing so.

Asked by summit co-chair Fran O'Sullivan about his personal dealings with Chinese leadership, Luxon said he had a good relationship with Premier Li Qiang, saying the pair "can get straight to the chase on the issues between us and between our countries." Of President Xi Jinping, he said he had met him "a lot" and had huge respect for what Xi had done in lifting so many people out of poverty and into the middle classes.

On the trickier question of balancing the relationship with China against New Zealand's Five Eyes membership, Luxon said the country wanted to build a "mini-lateral lattice" of security and economic agreements around the world. He also reiterated New Zealand’s support for the rules-based system, suggesting the country needs to find like-minded partners to help model what a revised multilateral system could look like – whether or not those partners sit inside the Five Eyes security and intelligence network the country is a member of.

 AI: "constantly underwhelmed"

The sharpest line of the morning, though, came when Luxon was asked from the audience how New Zealand could catch up with China, which was described as was six years ahead on AI adoption.

"I think there's a lot of opportunity, I think we're missing a big trick on AI in New Zealand," Luxon responded. He said New Zealand used to pride itself on being a good adopter of technology like AI tools, but he’s these days "constantly underwhelmed by how little we are adopting them."

Luxon suggested government should be leading by example rather than lagging behind. "We're really stuck in a 1995 way of doing things," he said, asking why a mother needing to sort tax rebates or check entitlements for her children should have to deal separately with agencies like MSD and IRD rather than via a single contact with a government agency.

He made a similar point about home loans, asking why income and ID verification couldn't be auto-generated the way it already is in the corporate world, adding that the technology "is not coming, it's here." He went on to call for a more customer-focused public service, equipped with the appropriate AI tools.

The PM also took aim at New Zealand's poor record turning research into commercial success. "To give you a feel for R&D... in New Zealand, we're probably 19th per capita in terms of our spend on R&D, but we're 46th on commercialisation," he said, bemoaning the instances where he hears about a New Zealander inventing something clever, only for it to be snapped up by a foreign company who goes on to build a billion-dollar business.  

Luxon said the goal was to "brutally commercialise our science system," adding: "I want professors to become millionaires because they're partnering with entrepreneurs and building out businesses," with universities, entrepreneurs and government working together more closely, as he said happens in other parts of the world.

Fuel security on the agenda too

Beyond Luxon's session, two other Cabinet ministers were on the early agenda at this year's summit. Trade, Agriculture and Investment Minister Todd McClay and Resources, Regional Development and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones were in conversation with Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Simon Bridges - one of the summit's co-chairs - covering the government's response to global fuel disruption linked to conflict in the Middle East, including strategic diesel reserves and contingency planning, alongside how New Zealand businesses might tap into China's technological and infrastructure strengths.

 Asia Media Centre