Screen-print illustration of Piopiotahi Milford Sound and Mitre Peak, Southland — Illustration generated with AI.

Murihiku. 3 districts and cities

Microsoft Copilot training in Southland

Southland’s food plants, farms and port supply chains pass records between teams over long distances. Microsoft 365 Copilot can assist those handovers when the workbook, message owner and final check are explicit.^3,4,6,7

Enquire Read the local brief

55.6% of Southland’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Southland	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	55.6%	63.6%	−8.1
3	People-facing	8.5%	9.0%	−0.5
4	Hands-on	36.0%	27.4%	+8.6
5	Employed residents	n/p	2,622,534

About 30,500 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: 100,0002023 Census
Business locations: 14,634Feb 2025, +2.1% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 51,710at local businesses, Feb 2025
Towns with a page: 71,000+ residents
Council areas: 3districts and cities

What AI means for work in Southland

Southland ranks 15 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, Southland against New Zealand

55.6% of employed residents in Southland work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. The difference is mostly labourers: 14.9% of employed residents here, against 9.0% nationally. 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, Southland and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Southland	NZ
Managers	11,346	20.7%	18.3%
Professionals	10,170	18.5%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	7,236	13.2%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	4,647	8.5%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	5,091	9.3%	10.8%
Sales workers	3,888	7.1%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	4,335	7.9%	5.9%
Labourers	8,163	14.9%	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: 15.0% of local jobs, 3.1× the national share

Top employer: manufacturing, 8,312 jobs (16.0%). 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, Southland and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Manufacturing	8,312	16.0%	9.4%	1.7×
Farming, forestry, fishing	7,783	15.0%	4.8%	3.1×
Health and social care	5,735	11.1%	12.0%	0.9×
Retail	4,928	9.5%	9.3%	1.0×
Hospitality	3,541	6.8%	7.2%	0.9×
Construction	3,540	6.8%	8.2%	0.8×
Education	3,449	6.7%	8.5%	0.8×
Transport and warehousing	2,866	5.5%	4.2%	1.3×
Professional services	2,104	4.1%	8.3%	0.5×
Wholesale	1,856	3.6%	5.0%	0.7×

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 +2.1% and employees +1.4%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 50,978 (2020) to 51,710 (2025), +1.4% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 14,331 to 14,634. Largest job gain: health and social care (+927). Largest loss: farming, forestry, fishing (−532).

Business locations: 14,33114,634 in 2025, from 2020; +2.1% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 50,97851,710 in 2025, from 2020; +1.4% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Southland, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Health and social care	4,808	5,735	+927
Professional services	1,821	2,104	+283
Arts and recreation	927	1,144	+217
Farming, forestry, fishing	8,315	7,783	−532
Manufacturing	8,567	8,312	−255
Retail	5,004	4,928	−76

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.

17.0%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

85.9%

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 Southland, compared

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

Desk-based share by district, Southland
District or city	Share	NZ
Southland District	60.1%	63.6%
Invercargill City	53.6%	63.6%
Gore District	52.2%	63.6%

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

Towns and cities in Southland

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

Towns in Southland
Town	Residents	Desk-based	Business locations	Since 2020
Invercargill	49,000	53.2%	4,809	+8.5%
Gore	8,180	50.1%	1,116	+5.1%
Te Ānau	2,750	55.4%	444	+12.1%
Winton	2,480	53.2%	300	+4.2%
Bluff	1,800	49.4%	177	−6.3%
Riverton	1,710	52.6%	222	+27.6%
Mataura	1,650	37.2%	78	−10.3%
New Zealand	4,993,923	63.6%	654,435	+9.6%

Microsoft Copilot for Southland’s largest industries

A shared Word note should point back to the approved Excel or SharePoint source. Assign production, dispatch or visitor staff to confirm details before an Outlook reply goes out.^4,6

Food manufacturing

Use a sample Excel production register to prepare a Word shift note, then reconcile batches and exceptions with the plant owner.^6,7

Port logistics

Summarise an authorised Teams freight discussion into an Outlook draft, checking cargo facts against the dispatch file.^4,11

About Southland

Stats NZ recorded 100,143 usual residents in Southland in the 2023 Census, up 2.7% from 2018. Great South’s 2025 quarterly report identifies agriculture, food production, energy and tourism as core parts of the regional economy. Pastoral farming and food processing are joined by electricity generation and export freight: South Port at Bluff serves aluminium, timber, fisheries, dairy and meat cargo. Great South’s regional plan also identifies aquaculture and tourism as major diversification opportunities.^1,3,4,5

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Southland

Pastoral agriculture and dairy production

Reconcile milk collection records in Excel
A farm office or dairy operations team can use Copilot in Excel to check uploaded pickup and delivery tables, flag missing entries and prepare a daily variance summary. The team reviews the exceptions before updating its own records.⁶

Why here: Fonterra’s Edendale investment adds UHT processing capacity and depends on a regional supply of high-quality cream, making reliable collection and intake records a practical Southland workflow.
- Copilot in Excel
Prepare farm compliance packs from approved files
A farm administrator can use Copilot in Word to draft a seasonal evidence pack from the farm’s own approved procedures and records. A manager checks each reference and signs off before the pack is shared.⁸

Why here: Infometrics places agriculture, forestry and fishing at 22.3% of Southland regional GDP in 2021, so repeatable document work is relevant across the region’s primary sector.
- Copilot in Word
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
Turn Teams handovers into next-shift actions
A dairy operations team can use Copilot in Teams to summarise a recorded shift discussion and extract assigned actions for maintenance, utilities and quality staff. Supervisors verify names, dates and safety instructions before posting the handover.⁶

Why here: Fonterra’s Edendale investment is a production expansion with new UHT processing capacity, so well-structured shift handovers are locally relevant to dairy operations.
- Copilot in Teams
- Copilot in Loop

Meat and food manufacturing

Draft a reviewed quality deviation report
A quality coordinator can use Copilot in Word to turn a team’s verified notes into a structured deviation report with sections for evidence, containment and follow-up. The coordinator checks technical details and retains the approved record in the quality system.⁷

Why here: Alliance Group operates its Lorneville beef and venison plant near Invercargill, making food-processing quality documentation a locally grounded use case.
- Copilot in Word
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
Review production and downtime patterns in Excel
A production analyst can use Copilot in Excel to explain a supplied downtime or output table, identify unusual periods and create a chart for a review meeting. The analyst checks the calculations against the plant’s source system before presenting them.^7,8

Why here: The regional Infometrics baseline identifies manufacturing as 14.4% of Southland GDP in 2021, and Alliance’s Southland facility processes beef and venison.
- Copilot in Excel
- Copilot in PowerPoint
Share shift actions across Teams and Loop
A shift lead can use Copilot in Teams to summarise a meeting and move verified tasks into a Loop workspace for production, maintenance and quality leads. Each owner checks the task list and corrects operational details before the next shift.^7,11

Why here: Alliance’s Lorneville site combines beef and venison processing, and South Port supports the region’s meat and dairy freight, so coordinated handovers matter across production and dispatch.
- Copilot in Teams
- Copilot in Loop

What Southland does

Pastoral agriculture and dairy production. Agriculture is a core regional industry. Fonterra’s Edendale site is a long-running dairy manufacturing location, and Fonterra announced a new UHT cream plant there in 2024.^3,6 Named in public sources: Fonterra Edendale⁶.
Meat and food manufacturing. Food production is a core regional activity. Alliance Group operates its Lorneville beef and venison plant near Invercargill, while Southland’s regional economic profile also identifies manufacturing as a major contributor to GDP.^3,7,8 Named in public sources: Alliance Group Lorneville⁷.
Aluminium and renewable electricity. NZAS operates New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point, across Bluff Harbour. Meridian operates the Manapōuri hydro station in Fiordland, and its regional electricity supply is part of Southland’s industrial and energy context.^8,9,10 Named in public sources: New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS)⁹, Meridian Energy¹⁰.
Port logistics and export freight. South Port’s Bluff facilities handle cargo, containers, marine services and warehousing for Southland import and export industries, including food, aluminium, timber and fisheries.^4,11 Named in public sources: South Port New Zealand⁴.
Tourism and visitor services. Great South supports the regional visitor economy, including Fiordland, and its destination strategy focuses on visitor dispersal, workforce, shared infrastructure and data for tourism businesses.^12,13

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

Training venues in and near Southland

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

25 on Don Business and Innovation Centre training room²⁵

70 people, largest layout

Theatre seating for 70 or cabaret for 30; the source also lists a boardroom layout for 16.
- Two 85-inch TVs
- Laptop and clicker
- Whiteboards
- Flipchart stand
- Lectern
25 Don Street, Invercargill
Scottish Hall²⁸

200 people, largest layout

Council lists a hall seating up to 200 and a Community Lounge for groups of 30-50.
- Stage
- Fully equipped kitchen
- Bar area
- Tables and chairs
Invercargill
Snap Factory²⁷

Conference venue

Event space fits 20-30 people; hire by the hour or day.

169 Dee Street, Invercargill

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

In the local business news

23 Jan 2025
Beyond 2025 Southland: A Year of Progress and Promise Great South
Great South’s first-year review describes airport expansion, South Port upgrades and a new engineering and manufacturing cluster. It gives a concrete regional hook for training tied to infrastructure, export operations and industrial innovation.
17 Feb 2025
Southland’s wet spring leads to an increase in cargo at South Port Southland Business Chamber
The article reports that Bluff port volumes rose in the first half of 2024-25, including agricultural inputs, logs, woodchips and stock food. The weather-related shift in cargo gives a local example of changing demand across rural supply chains.
3 Sept 2024
New plant for Fonterra's Edendale site, creating 70 new jobs Fonterra
Fonterra announced a new UHT cream plant at Edendale, with added processing capacity and 70 planned jobs. It is a current local example of investment in dairy manufacturing and export-oriented food products.
15 Nov 2024
Govt loan to boost Southland’s aquaculture industry Southland Business Chamber
The Chamber’s report on funding for the Ocean Beach site describes planned infrastructure for aquaculture production, skills and exports. Great South identifies aquaculture as a regional diversification opportunity, so the announcement is relevant to workforce and supply-chain capability.

A Southland workplace session can follow one permitted record between sites and name the person who verifies each transfer.^4,6

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops in Southland

There is no public Copilot workshop in Southland 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 Southland

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

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