Wellington Mayor Andrew Little stated in a radio interview that a significant portion of a $435,000 Deloitte report concerning Wellington City Council staffing levels was drafted using artificial intelligence. Released last November, the Future Fit Pōneke report originally claimed the council carried 330 excess staff members, a finding that has faced mounting scrutiny due to multiple calculation errors and reliance on outdated data.
AI Usage and Deloitte Report Credibility
Speaking on Newstalk ZB in a Tuesday interview, Mayor Little reported that large chunks of the Deloitte document were written by AI, though he did not specify the exact scale or identify which sections were generated that way. According to Little, the report contained some useful insight, specifically identifying the council’s contract management systems as a disaster, but he characterized the rest of the document as a waste of time.
The credibility of the assessment has deteriorated following revelations about its methodology. The report initially asserted the council had 330 excess staff, but investigators later found that Deloitte had double-counted current employees against vacant roles and utilized three-year-old employment data sourced from the Taxpayers’ Union.
Council Scrutiny and Documented Calculation Errors
Little’s office directed inquiries regarding the report to a paper submitted to a council meeting last week. That paper cataloged a series of further errors made by the consulting firm, including counting all employees at full-time salaries regardless of individual work hours and overstating total staffing expenses by $21.5 million.
Furthermore, the firm treated any job title containing the word “project” as an automatic duplicate position. Council papers concluded that the incorrect data usage meant the assumptions used to construct the recommendation to reduce the organization by 330 full-time equivalent (FTE) roles were inherently flawed. A corrected calculation suggests a more accurate staffing reduction figure would be 284, though that calculation does not account for other potential errors in the underlying assumptions.
Firm Response and Future Implications
Deloitte has faced inquiries following the mayor’s Tuesday statements, though the firm previously defended the integrity of its work. According to a statement issued by a Deloitte spokesperson last week, the firm uses a range of tools and technologies across its operations, including AI-enabled tools where appropriate, provided a human signs off on any analysis, findings, and conclusions. The spokesperson maintained that the firm is satisfied the report’s conclusions reflect the work performed and the professional judgment applied throughout the engagement.
