Leon Compton 
Tell me about this AI bot and how you’re using it to help with planning.

Lachlan Kranz
We’re incredibly excited to launch it and it is phase one of a pretty ambitious program we’ve got to further roll this out. But at its heart, it’s about empowering our customers. We’ve custom made this bot. So it’s using a multimodal large language model. It’s been trained by us using public datasets. So like the list, for example, this map, and it’s been designed to answer the common questions that are typically posed to our planning staff. So the idea is to empower our customers with better information to improve their ability to work with building professionals that are supporting them in the build of their house. And also just the basics for, you know, if people are looking to buy and understand the potential development and uses for a property or indeed people that might have a building on their property that they may not have gone through the permitted pathways back in the day. And they’re looking for a discreet way to just understand how they could convert those buildings into a lawful residence, for example.

Leon Compton 
And you’ve plugged into that AI all of the information about the Tasmanian planning scheme and any modifications that the Huon Valley Council might impose in different places, I’m imagining. If it still takes weeks or months to get final sign off, though, does it really make things faster, Lachlan?

Lachlan Kranz
Yeah. So look, at this stage, it will have a modest, we’re hoping, and obviously we launched yesterday and the results from yesterday were really pleasing. But it’ll take some time to see what actual productivity gain we realise. We think it will be significant. In the first instance, improving the quality of applications by giving customers better information up front. And then secondly, taking planners away from answering those routine queries means they can invest their time in doing actual development assessments and should get those out quicker. So for example, yesterday, the first day we launched it, it answered 50 calls. That amounted to about 400 minutes of time, which is effectively one entire planner all day talking to applicants.

Leon Compton 
What sort of calls did it get? So do you have, like, does Mary or John at reception go, hang on a second, Leon, I think you might need our bot to help you. I’ll just put you through. Like, how does it work?

Lachlan Kranz
Yeah, there’s a direct number. But also, yes, we can refer people through to the bot and we’ll be promoting it quite heavily to encourage its use because it is hugely, I mean, look, it’s an encyclopedic knowledge of the planning system. It’s incredibly effective. So, but Lachlan, I’m just worried.

Leon Compton 
What if it says, Leon, you don’t need a council permit to build that deck. Go ahead. No, and then I start building the deck and then somebody from council turns. Like, it can’t give me final sign off, can it, Lachlan?

Lachlan Kranz
No, it can’t. It can’t provide approval. It is providing information on how to understand the planning scheme and give you options for submitting your applications. It’s a support tool. It is not replacing people and it is certainly not taking over the actual assessment or approval process.

Leon Compton 
Just one more thing because we’ve got to go into news. Is it like a conversation or is it in writing?

Lachlan Kranz
No, it’s a conversation and it’s very, it was great to see people having a bit of fun with it yesterday. Shout out to the person that, you know, proposed to it. But it answered a range of questions from basic builds to removing trees to rezoning. Did a very good job. We think it’ll really support our customers and the next phase for us is where you’re talking about actually reducing timeframes and that is going to be significant for productivity and customers in the Huyen, but we think it has significant state opportunities as well.