NSW taps Adaptovate for new housing planning system
The NSW Government has selected Sydney-headquartered tech consultancy Adaptovate for an innovative planning initiative aimed at using artificial intelligence to tackle the housing crisis.
The $5.6 million trial will include the firm’s ‘Development Assessment Intelligence System’ (DAISY), with the view to speeding up and streamlining the assessment process for local council development applications.
Adaptovate is one of three organisations so far appointed to the state’s AI Solutions Panel assembled by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, alongside PropTech software start-ups Archistar and PropCode.
“Our DAISY system will help councils reduce average development assessment times by helping applicants get relevant information quickly and easily and then identifying administration and data input errors to enable councils to scale their development application process to meet the demands of NSW,” stated Adaptovate managing director Douglas Ross.
A senior adviser with Boston Consulting Group, Ross co-founded Adaptovate alongside fellow BCG consultants Alex Rebkowski and Paul McNamara in 2016, with the Agile-minded firm having now grown to a headcount of around 150 professionals spread across ten offices in Australia, Singapore, the UK, Europe, Canada and US.
As to the trial, participating councils will deploy DAISY as a browser-based tool to provide applicants with site-specific personalised guidance kept up to date through the use of AI to mine for relevant data, such as applicable legislation. It will also assess whether all the necessary documentation has been completed prior to submission.
The idea is that in saving council hours and streamlining the planning process, a greater number and better quality of applications can be approved for building in a shorter time-frame, which will hopefully then lead to more affordable housing based on increased supply.
The NSW government has previously been recognised as a global leader for digital services.
“As New South Wales navigates a housing crisis and a shortage of planners, this funding program that will help facilitate innovative ways to support councils and accelerate development assessment times, is one that really excites the team at Adaptovate,” stated managing director David Gumley, who previously oversaw Asia Pacific business development at Ernst & Young.
