Screen-print illustration of the broad Manawatū River plain beneath the Ruahine ranges, Manawatū-Whanganui — Illustration generated with AI.

Manawatū-Whanganui. 7 districts and cities

Microsoft Copilot training in Manawatū-Whanganui

Manawatū-Whanganui teams coordinate food production, research and freight over a wide area. Microsoft 365 Copilot can follow the record from an Excel register to a Teams action or Word note when each owner is named.^2,5,18,19

Enquire Read the local brief

58.5% of Manawatū-Whanganui’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Manawatū-Whanganui	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	58.5%	63.6%	−5.2
3	People-facing	11.1%	9.0%	+2.1
4	Hands-on	30.5%	27.4%	+3.1
5	Employed residents	124,749	2,622,534

About 72,900 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.

Residents: 251,0002023 Census
Business locations: 27,486Feb 2025, +5.2% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 108,849at local businesses, Feb 2025
Towns with a page: 171,000+ residents
Council areas: 7districts and cities

What AI means for work in Manawatū-Whanganui

Manawatū-Whanganui ranks 12 of 16 regions for the share of desk-based roles. Findings from Stats NZ data, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Manawatū-Whanganui against New Zealand

58.5% of employed residents in Manawatū-Whanganui work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. Size the licences to the desk-based roles rather than headcount. A pilot with office, scheduling and management staff shows value before you pay for everyone.

Employed residents by occupation group, Manawatū-Whanganui and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Manawatū-Whanganui	NZ
Managers	21,975	17.6%	18.3%
Professionals	28,101	22.5%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	15,951	12.8%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	13,827	11.1%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	13,251	10.6%	10.8%
Sales workers	9,609	7.7%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	8,145	6.5%	5.9%
Labourers	13,932	11.2%	9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Farming, forestry, fishing: 7.6% of local jobs, 1.6× the national share

Top employer: health and social care, 15,185 jobs (14.0%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Manawatū-Whanganui and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Health and social care	15,185	14.0%	12.0%	1.2×
Manufacturing	11,607	10.7%	9.4%	1.1×
Education	11,487	10.6%	8.5%	1.3×
Public administration	10,328	9.5%	6.4%	1.5×
Retail	10,045	9.2%	9.3%	1.0×
Construction	8,701	8.0%	8.2%	1.0×
Farming, forestry, fishing	8,298	7.6%	4.8%	1.6×
Hospitality	6,459	5.9%	7.2%	0.8×
Wholesale	5,202	4.8%	5.0%	0.9×
Professional services	4,445	4.1%	8.3%	0.5×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

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

Business locations +5.2% and employees +0.4%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 108,456 (2020) to 108,849 (2025), +0.4% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 26,121 to 27,486. Largest job gain: health and social care (+1,229). Largest loss: farming, forestry, fishing (−732).

Business locations: 26,12127,486 in 2025, from 2020; +5.2% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 108,456108,849 in 2025, from 2020; +0.4% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Manawatū-Whanganui, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Health and social care	13,956	15,185	+1,229
Other services	3,814	4,258	+444
Construction	8,264	8,701	+437
Farming, forestry, fishing	9,030	8,298	−732
Admin and support services	3,254	2,683	−571
Public administration	10,799	10,328	−471

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

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

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

Both on-site and remote sessions work. Most teams start with a half-day on-site.

16.4%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

87.4%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Council areas in Manawatū-Whanganui, compared

Share of employed residents in desk-based roles, by district

Desk-based share by district, Manawatū-Whanganui
District or city	Share	NZ
Palmerston North City	61.0%	63.6%
Manawatu District	60.5%	63.6%
Whanganui District	57.0%	63.6%
Tararua District	56.6%	63.6%
Horowhenua District	55.7%	63.6%
Rangitikei District	55.1%	63.6%
Ruapehu District	54.4%	63.6%

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Also partly in Manawatū-Whanganui: Taupo District, Stratford District, Waitomo District.

Towns and cities in Manawatū-Whanganui

Each has its own page and local brief. Largest first, by residents at the 2023 Census.

Towns in Manawatū-Whanganui
Town	Residents	Desk-based	Business locations	Since 2020
Palmerston North	78,000	60.6%	7,458	+4.1%
Whanganui	41,500	55.8%	3,672	+14.6%
Levin	19,500	51.5%	1,290	+6.4%
Feilding	16,900	56.5%	1,452	+15.5%
Marton	5,600	48.4%	405	+8.9%
Dannevirke	5,580	44.8%	459	−1.9%
Taumarunui	4,820	52.2%	384	−0.8%
Foxton	3,380	52.2%	222	+27.6%
Ashhurst	3,240	57.2%	171	+16.3%
Pahiatua	2,840	52.6%	276	+1.1%
Foxton Beach	2,130	56.2%	132	+25.7%
Bulls	2,060	51.4%	141	−9.6%
Taihape	1,670	49.5%	216	−6.5%
Woodville	1,660	48.1%	99	+3.1%
Shannon	1,550	52.2%	72	+26.3%
Ōhakune	1,280	55.4%	219	+1.4%
Raetihi	1,120	47.7%	105	+16.7%
New Zealand	4,993,923	63.6%	654,435	+9.6%

Microsoft Copilot for Manawatū-Whanganui’s largest industries

A freight or plant update should retain a link to the approved source, especially when several sites share the work. Decide which files staff may access and who checks the final draft.^5,18

Distribution and logistics

Use a sample Excel freight register to draft a Word exception report, then reconcile each open item with its source row.^5,20

Food processing

Summarise an authorised Teams shift discussion into actions for production and quality owners to confirm.^18,19

About Manawatū-Whanganui

Manawatū-Whanganui is a broad central and lower North Island region served by Horizons Regional Council, whose area includes seven principal district and city councils. Food production and processing sit alongside manufacturing, freight and logistics, education, defence, and research; the mix is visible in AFFCO’s Feilding beef plant, Open Country Dairy’s Whanganui powder plant, and the Manawatū research and tertiary cluster. CEDA’s September 2025 dashboard reports distribution and logistics as 12.8% of GDP in its Manawatū snapshot for the year to March 2024; that snapshot covers a narrower area than the full Horizons region. Te Utanganui is a major intermodal freight programme connecting road, rail, air and sea, while regional universities and research facilities support food and business innovation.^{2,5,7,12,13,18,19}

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Manawatū-Whanganui

Agriculture and food production

Turn Feilding plant data into shift briefs
Production supervisors could use Copilot in Excel to explore approved production and quality workbooks, then draft a concise shift handover in Word. A reviewer checks each figure and instruction before the brief is shared.¹⁸

Why here: AFFCO’s Feilding site is a multishift beef processing plant, so shift handovers are a concrete local workflow to examine.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
Coordinate dairy supplier updates in Teams
A dairy operations team could use Copilot in Teams to recap approved project discussions and identify follow-up tasks, then use Outlook to prepare supplier updates for review. This keeps routine coordination work linked to the team’s meeting record.¹⁹

Why here: Open Country Dairy’s Whanganui facility makes whole milk powders, linking dairy production and processing within the region.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook
Build a food product review agent
A product development team could prototype a Copilot Studio agent that answers staff questions from approved product specifications and process documents. The team would test permissions and source links before making it available internally.⁷

Why here: Massey’s FoodPilot turns food and beverage ideas into products and solutions, giving the region a specific setting for product-document workflows.
- Copilot Studio agents
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files

Distribution and logistics

Summarise freight planning meetings in Loop
A project office could use Copilot in Teams to recap approved freight planning meetings and carry decisions into a Loop workspace with named follow-up tasks. Project leads would check each task against the meeting record before circulating it.⁵

Why here: Te Utanganui brings road, rail, air and sea connections together in one central New Zealand freight programme.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Loop
Draft freight stakeholder updates from project files
A logistics team could ask Copilot Chat to draft a stakeholder update from approved project notes, then use Word to edit the language for each audience. Staff would confirm dates, dependencies and commitments in the source files.^5,20

Why here: The Te Utanganui programme includes road, rail and airport developments and aligns with port partners, creating multi-party coordination work in the Manawatū freight network.
- Copilot Chat
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
Track freight project actions in Excel
A project analyst could use Copilot in Excel to explore a milestones register and flag overdue or dependent tasks for review. The project manager would compare the output with the approved plan before reporting progress.²⁰

Why here: CEDA and council materials identify the Regional Freight Hub, Manawatū-Tararua Highway and Palmerston North Airport planning as linked regional projects.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel

What Manawatū-Whanganui does

Agriculture and food production. Livestock and dairy production connect to regional meat and dairy processing. AFFCO operates a beef processing plant at Feilding, and Open Country Dairy makes whole milk powders at its Whanganui plant.^1,18,19 Named in public sources: AFFCO Manawatu¹⁸, Open Country Dairy Whanganui¹⁹.
Distribution and logistics. Te Utanganui is a Central New Zealand distribution hub programme organised around road, rail, air and sea connections. Its stated catalysts include the Palmerston North Airport, a regional freight hub and the Manawatū Regional Freight Ring Road.^5,13,20
Defence. RNZAF Base Ōhakea is one of New Zealand’s three military air bases and is located between Palmerston North and Feilding. The base hosts operational and training squadrons as well as aircraft maintenance facilities.^1,6 Named in public sources: New Zealand Defence Force, RNZAF Base Ōhakea⁶.
Education, research and innovation. Massey University’s Manawatū campus hosts FoodPilot, which works on food and beverage products, and Massey Venues. UCOL has campuses in Palmerston North, Whanganui and Levin and describes partnerships with local businesses and industry.^7,9,14 Named in public sources: Massey University FoodPilot⁷, UCOL¹⁴.

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

Training venues in and near Manawatū-Whanganui

Most training happens at your own workplace. For a public workshop day or an off-site session, these places hire out rooms.

Massey Sport and Event Centre²¹

Massey describes meeting, team-building and corporate event use; no room capacity was stated on the page reviewed.
- meeting space
- corporate events
- accommodation
Massey University Manawatū campus, Palmerston North

From the venues’ own public listings. No booking or relationship is implied.

In the local business news

19 Jun 2025
Award-winning UV technology approved for Regional Infrastructure Fund Kānoa, Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit
Manawatū-based NovoLabs received in-principle RIF support for scaling manufacture of its UV disinfection technology. The article links the investment to food production, dairy farming and advanced manufacturing in the region.
8 Jul 2026
RIF loan supports new freight hub Kānoa, Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit
A staged loan will support the rail component of Te Utanganui’s Bunnythorpe Regional Freight Hub. The article describes planned links to road, rail, air and sea and identifies logistics and manufacturing as potential areas of later activity.

A workplace session can map a single permitted handover between files, roles and checks across the regional operation.^5,18

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops in Manawatū-Whanganui

There is no public Copilot workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

Tell me when there is a workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui

We will email you when a public workshop is scheduled nearby. No other mailing.

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