Te reo Māori — the indigenous language of the Māori people — has undergone a revitalisation in recent decades in New Zealand, but there is always more to do to ensure its survival.

With innovative and responsible use of AI to translate at the speed of the news cycle, Stuff Group is helping keep New Zealand’s indigenous language alive and thriving.

The United Nations estimates one language dies every two weeks, and many more are at risk. As the largest digital news provider in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Stuff has committed to upholding the principles of partnership, protection, and participation through our company charter, supporting our country’s indigenous language, te reo Māori.

A deep commitment

We established our Pou Tiaki (guard post) strategy in 2020, following our return to local ownership through a management buyout. Pou Tiaki was designed to guard against inequitable practices and to improve the representation of te ao Māori (the Māori worldview), Māori voices, and perspectives.

We introduced te reo Māori-translated news articles across a range of subjects on Stuff with the support of Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission) and then through New Zealand on Air Irirangi Te Motu.

We translated more than 500 stories, setting a new standard in mainstream news.

Strengthening our commitment with AI

Embedding te reo Māori into news coverage has become business as usual, and producing bilingual articles is just one part of Stuff’s commitment to our wider Treaty of Waitangi-based charter.

By scaling up our te reo Māori content at Stuff, we can help normalise the language for our audience, providing invaluable resources for the increasing number of language learners and speakers.

In March 2024, we once again broke new ground in Aotearoa.

We partnered with Straker — a New Zealand provider of AI-driven content automation, verification, and translation services — and Microsoft to pilot a new AI tool to help us translate our content into te reo Māori more efficiently.

The partnership combines human expertise with AI, enabling the translation of content at scale, quality-checked by humans before publication.

To ensure transparency for our audiences and customers, every translated article includes an explainer informing readers it was translated by AI and reviewed by Stuff’s kaiwhakamāori (translator). 

Unlocking increased productivity

Given the shortage of fluent speakers and translators available to write and then translate articles into te reo to the necessary standard, the partnership with Straker and Microsoft was fundamental to achieving our primary objective of increasing the number of te reo Māori stories published on Stuff.

The move from manual to AI-assisted translation resulted in significant increases in total content created and published, with the associated improvements in process efficiency making for compelling reading: 

• Average words per hour: manual: 211; AI-assisted: 417 (improvement +98%).

• Minutes per article: manual: 101 minutes; AI assisted: 50 minutes (improvement +102%). 

• Articles per day: manual: 4.3; AI assisted: 8.9 (improvement +107%). 

The tool allows us to update the dedicated section of bilingual stories on our Web site at a much faster pace, ensuring we cover a diverse range of topics from specific Māori issues to travel, food, entertainment, and politics. The more articles we process through the tool, the smarter and quicker it gets so even more content can be translated in the future. 

Commercial outcomes improved, too 

The increase in the number of fully translated articles published, along with the associated publicity and supporting advertising campaign surrounding the launch of the partnership with Straker and Microsoft, enabled our sales teams to leverage both elements and re-engage with commercial clients seeking to align themselves with Stuff’s Pou Tiaki promise. 

From launching in April 2024 through to the end of December, we saw year-on-year increases of:

• Article impressions: +45%.

• Advertising revenue: +778%.

Ultimately, though, this partnership was always about something much bigger than commercial performance, best summed up by this Māori proverb: 

He aha te mea nui o te ao?

(What is the most important thing in the world?) 

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

(It is people, it is people, it is people)

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