Bailey Abbott lands AI deal with three Adelaide councils

Bailey Abbott has been appointed Strategic AI and Data Partner to the Cities of Charles Sturt, Marion and Port Adelaide Enfield under a four-year, multimillion-dollar agreement.

The South Australian consultancy secured the work through an open expression-of-interest process and will invest more than $1 million in the programme over the life of the contract.

Under the arrangement, Bailey Abbott will work with staff across the three councils on AI discovery and readiness assessments, the design of priority use cases, council AI roadmaps, pilot programmes and broader implementation. The work will also include training and support to build AI knowledge within council teams.

The councils plan to use the partnership to explore where AI and data tools could help address operational issues and improve services for residents. Areas under consideration include faster service responses, better internal insights for staff and more efficient administrative processes.

Governance model

A Joint Steering Committee of representatives from the three councils and Bailey Abbott will oversee priorities, risk management, data governance and ethical issues. Delivery will follow what the consultancy describes as an Idea-to-Operate framework, covering projects from early exploration to operational use.

The structure is intended to put governance and oversight alongside the development of new tools, rather than treat implementation as a one-off technology purchase. The programme is also designed to create a portfolio of separate initiatives rather than rely on a single platform.

Shared development

The commercial model allows the councils and Bailey Abbott to share in the value of solutions developed through the programme. Intellectual property created through the work will be governed so councils can reuse and benefit from tools developed with public funding.

If projects developed during the contract prove useful in other settings, they could be adopted more widely across local government. Bailey Abbott said its investment will support research, product development and skills development in the public sector.

The appointment also marks a notable local government AI project in South Australia, where councils are considering how to introduce the technology while maintaining controls around data use, transparency and public trust.

For Bailey Abbott, the contract adds to its work in IT, data and digital transformation and supports its push to develop AI products and services for the public sector. It also plans to keep investing in local talent and a broader network of South Australian specialists to support council adoption of data and AI.

The three councils are among Adelaide's larger metropolitan local authorities, giving the programme a broader footprint than a single-council trial. Its design also creates a shared learning model, with staff across the councils expected to work together on experiments and implementation in what Bailey Abbott described as a safe and structured environment.

The contract sets up a multi-council test of how local government can move from exploratory AI work to operational use while keeping decision-making, governance and data oversight within formal public sector structures.