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17.8% of Wellington employees work in government

ChatGPT for accountable work in Wellington public services

A public-service assistant needs a defined task and an official who can check its work. Learn ChatGPT through public documents, invented consultation data and carefully bounded administrative examples.

EnquireWhere ChatGPT helps
Illustration generated with AI.
Employees in government
50,020Wellington, February 2025
Share of Wellington employees
17.8%1 of 16 regions
Share across New Zealand
6.4%all regions, February 2025
Location quotient
2.78×more concentrated than nationally

Government in Wellington

Wellington City Council's listed services range from local roads and libraries to civil defence and social housing.3 These varied functions make accurate public explanations a useful council exercise. Central agency teams can adapt the approach to their own service guidance, with an approved owner deciding what evidence the draft must contain.

TheColab offers workplace delivery across the Wellington region and remote training for dispersed agency staff. Choose a public guide or a fabricated data table first. The workshop teaches staff to define scope, expose missing information and show the reviewer how an answer was produced. Rollout work can include the people responsible for information management and access.

Paid employees in government went from 40,296 in February 2020 to 50,020 in February 2025 (+24.1%).

Share of paid employees in government, by region

Share of employees in government by region, Wellington highlighted
RegionChartShareNZ×
Wellington (this page) 17.8% 6.4% 2.8×
Manawatū-Whanganui 9.5% 6.4% 1.5×
Northland 6.2% 6.4% 1.0×
Waikato 5.0% 6.4% 0.8×
Canterbury 4.8% 6.4% 0.8×
Gisborne 4.8% 6.4% 0.7×
Marlborough 4.8% 6.4% 0.8×
Auckland 4.7% 6.4% 0.7×
Hawke's Bay 4.6% 6.4% 0.7×
Bay of Plenty 4.5% 6.4% 0.7×
Otago 4.4% 6.4% 0.7×
Taranaki 4.4% 6.4% 0.7×
West Coast 4.4% 6.4% 0.7×
Nelson 4.2% 6.4% 0.7×
Southland 3.6% 6.4% 0.6×
Tasman 2.1% 6.4% 0.3×

Paid employees at business locations in the region, February 2025. The tick marks the national share. × is the regional share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Local context

  • The GCDO's cross-agency survey describes assisted search, data summaries and workflow automation, alongside capability and privacy concerns.2 Its evidence covers national organisations and proposed as well as operational uses. The Chamber's 2026 Wellington priorities also call for practical public-sector digital skills.1 Both sources support careful capability development without establishing local product approvals.1,2

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Towns in Wellington

Each town page has its own figures and local brief.

Or see ChatGPT training across Wellington.

Where ChatGPT helps government teams

  • Keep a service-writing Project

    Add an approved public service guide and editorial instructions to a ChatGPT Project. Projects organise files, chats and context for recurring work.6 Ask for a draft answer that uses the supplied conditions and identifies missing details. A service owner checks the source passages before the wording becomes a public reply, and preserves any qualification that affects the reader's next step.

    • Service communications adviser
    • Projects

  • Prototype an internal guidance GPT

    Build a custom GPT with a small permitted set of administrative references. Tailored instructions and knowledge files are supported ChatGPT capabilities.5 Test it with an incomplete request and a question outside the source material. Require an evidence link or an escalation route. The guidance owner should verify sample answers before staff adopt the draft routine. Agencies should note that only Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces can create new GPTs and that OpenAI is moving custom GPTs to plugins, so plan for migration.9

    • Agency knowledge owner
    • Custom GPTs

  • Inspect a consultation practice dataset

    Use data analysis with invented submission labels and topic codes. ChatGPT can analyse structured uploads and visualise counts.5 Ask it to explain exclusions and category rules, then manually recalculate the table. Keep minority themes visible in the exercise. The consultation analyst decides how the coding relates to the original material and whether a summary fairly represents it.

    • Consultation analyst
    • Data analysis

  • Retrieve a permitted document

    Where approved, use a connected app to locate guidance the signed-in official can already access. Connected apps depend on service permissions and workspace controls.7 Ask ChatGPT to show the original document location, version and relevant section. Verify it in the source system before drafting an answer. Begin with read-only retrieval rather than actions that change records or send communications.

    • Business support officer
    • Connectors through connected apps

Check a public answer before release

  1. Write an invented enquiry and select the authorised service guide it concerns.
  2. Draft an answer with references and separate questions for the service owner.
  3. Review each condition against the original guide and remove unsupported conclusions.
  4. Keep the accepted example and its review notes in the approved record system.

Courses

  1. 1Introductory

    ChatGPT essentials workshop

    A hands-on first session: clear prompts, files, data analysis, Projects and search, practised on tasks your team already does.

  2. 2Organisation

    ChatGPT Business and Enterprise rollout

    Set up a ChatGPT workspace properly: plan choice, admin settings, an AI use policy, shared skills and Projects, and support that keeps people using it.

  3. 3Advanced

    Skills, plugins, workspace agents and connected apps

    For power users and technical leads: skills, plugins, Projects, ChatGPT Work, connected apps, data analysis and workspace agents.

Government in other regions

Other industries in Wellington

See ChatGPT for government and public services across New Zealand, or all training in Wellington.

Government in Wellington: questions

Can we begin without internal documents?

Public service guides and invented enquiries provide enough context for a first exercise. Staff can practise accurate wording and review evidence while the agency assesses any proposed use of internal material separately.

Should a GPT make an eligibility decision?

The proposed GPT helps staff locate and explain approved guidance. Keep consequential decisions with the authorised official and the full service process. The Framework calls for accountable humans throughout AI use.4 Any such GPT also depends on an eligible workspace and a migration plan, as OpenAI intends to retire custom GPTs.9

Are connections required for the workshop?

Uploaded public files can support the initial session. Connected apps are optional and have separate access controls.7 An agency systems owner should approve the service, account scope and purpose before any internal connection is tested.

How can we assess whether the pilot is useful?

Compare drafts with the approved guide and record missed conditions, invented details and unclear escalation points. Use reviewer feedback to revise the instructions. A pilot should demonstrate a reliable check and a maintainable workflow before its scope expands.

Train your government team in Wellington

  1. Send us a few linesHow many people, where you are, and the jobs that eat your week.
  2. We reply with a planA suggested session and format, plus what to bring: real quotes, emails and questions.
  3. Your team does the workAt your place or over video. They finish with ChatGPT doing real tasks, not demos.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with OpenAI.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Wellington. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

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Sources

Written 6 October 2026. Employment figures come from Stats NZ Business Demography Statistics.