![\"Queensland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787458123_150_ImageResizer.ashx.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nKey points<\/p>\n
Director general Sally Stannard and CFO Nick Shaw are driving leader-led AI adoption across TMR, according to Paul Hesford.
\nTMR already uses Microsoft’s Copilot to help manage its $10 billion budget and aims for 15 AI projects live by Christmas, with 15 more after.
\nThe department has just gone live with resume ranking, built around what Hesford calls “human-controlled AI” rather than “human in the loop”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Queensland\u2019s Department of Transport and Main Roads\u2019 most senior leadership is playing a bigger part in its technology decisions, driving appetite for more AI adoption across the organisation.<\/p>\n
Speaking at an SAP customer event in Sydney, TMR\u2019s deputy chief financial offer and digital transformation lead Paul Hesford said the department had a full pipeline of AI projects headed for production with backing from its most senior public servant, director general Sally Stannard.<\/p>\n
\u201cSally Stannard, our director general, has moved the IT function closer to the centre [of the department],” Hesford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wants to modernise the way we do our work. She puts out in her messages what she’s using Copilot for, and so it is being definitely leader-led.”<\/p>\n
Hesford named his direct report, TMR\u2019s chief financial officer Nick Shaw, as another senior leader driving the cultural shift across the department to support AI adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s been at me for over three years [asking], \u2018When am I getting AI?\u2019,\u201d Hesford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally culture is critical around working with the business, the leaders and giving the staff the confidence to leverage the technology,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
TMR already uses Microsoft\u2019s Copilot widely to help manage the organisation\u2019s $10 billion budget including submissions to ministers, and preparing content for case studies and annual reports.<\/p>\n
It also used Copilot to write the ethical assessment for the adoption of SAP\u2019s platform, according to Hesford.<\/p>\n
TMR is in the process of transitioning to SAP S4\/HANA, which has more native AI capability and, to condition its data, is using SAP-certified extension Syniti to make recommendations, with 200 generated to date.<\/p>\n
The department wants to have 15 AI projects live by Christmas with plans for 15 more after that.<\/p>\n
Resume ranking<\/p>\n
An emerging use case for AI is to\u00a0collate and rank resumes, according to Hesford.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve just gone live with resume ranking,” he said.<\/p>\n
“[There\u2019s] a lot of ethical considerations in how you rank resumes. And there was a bit of pushback from the business, but very much focused around human-controlled AI.”<\/p>\n
Hesford said that he was introduced to the concept of \u201chuman-controlled AI\u201d through work with the University of Queensland, and that he\u2019d come to prefer it over \u201chuman in the loop\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The university] introduced me to the concept of human-controlled AI and [I thought] that makes a lot more sense, and you can actually see it, especially in a state government organisation where we tend to be quite risk-averse.<\/p>\n
“Talking about human-controlled AI puts the power back in the public servant or the individual to make the decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key points Director general Sally Stannard and CFO Nick Shaw are driving leader-led AI adoption across TMR, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-865119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}