2026 Future of Infrastructure Survey

Five major global infrastructure trends and what they mean for New Zealand

Moving to an interconnected system-of-systems

For New Zealand to meet its infrastructure objectives, it must manage infrastructure as a more connected system, rather than as a collection of individual assets. Network operators are accountable for overall performance, yet funding, governance, investment planning, and asset management remain largely organised around individual asset classes.

While some organisations are becoming increasingly effective at managing assets, many are still struggling to optimise overall network performance, prioritise investment across the system or demonstrate how decisions they make support wider organisation objectives. Few are bringing together assets, services, data, technology, people and suppliers to paint a wider picture of performance in context. Closing this gap is important to sustaining the public outcomes that our infrastructure exists to provide.

Shifting from capital availability to capital fit

New Zealand has significant infrastructure investment needs that cannot be met through public funding alone. Historically, government entities have not consistently translated investment needs into opportunities capable of attracting private capital. Public infrastructure opportunities can be difficult for investors to understand, evaluate and access, particularly when their value, long-term returns and commercial arrangements are not clearly articulated. In the global market, New Zealand infrastructure competes with other investments that may be simpler, more familiar and easier to enter.

Unlocking private capital requires clearer investment opportunities, well-structured programmes of work, appropriate risk allocation and commercial arrangements that reflect how private investors actually assess opportunities.

Reducing institutional friction

New Zealand experiences institutional friction in infrastructure delivery, including organisational and regulatory barriers, although our challenges differ from those faced by many other countries. Some of our country’s system-level barriers remain, but government settings are increasingly focused on enabling infrastructure organisations to move faster and more efficiently.

The main ongoing barrier to infrastructure delivery here often sits within delivery organisations themselves, where complex internal processes and risk aversion delay decisions about which opportunities reach the market. Wider infrastructure system reform will have limited impact unless entities can strengthen and speed up their own investment decisions.

Building resilience across the infrastructure system

New Zealand needs to move beyond thinking about resilience primarily as an emergency-management issue. A critical infrastructure approach needs to consider all the components required to sustain an essential service, including physical assets, cyber and information systems, people, supply chains, funding, and governance.

A resilient critical infrastructure strategy focuses on the connections between systems, where disruption may spread, and what is needed to withstand, respond to and recover from failure holistically. Making change at the system level would integrate resilience into asset management, operational, and investment decisions, rather than treating physical, cyber, and organisational resilience as separate agendas.

Strategically investing in data, technology and AI

New Zealand has made progress in using data, advanced technologies, and AI. However, adoption remains uneven and is often driven by immediate needs rather than a long-term strategy. Organisations need a clearer view of the decisions technology should improve, the available options, the insights it can generate, and how it will support performance across the infrastructure lifecycle.

Strategic investment does not require perfect data. Starting with priority decisions and available information can create immediate value, while identifying and improving the data, capability, and governance over time. Systems thinking helps organisations understand how critical infrastructure performs as a whole, while data, technology and AI provide the insight needed to make better investment and operational decisions.

About the report

The Deloitte Global 2026 Future of Infrastructure Survey surveyed 985 infrastructure executives around the world across government, private sector, and not-for-profit organisations to understand how leaders are approaching infrastructure investment, delivery, resilience, technology, AI, and financing.

The survey included respondents from 21 countries across four infrastructure asset classes: digital infrastructure and networks; energy, water, other utilities; mobility and transportation; and social and entertainment infrastructure. Our commentary focuses on what these findings mean for New Zealand.