Wednesday Sep 2
FLOPSDeloitte

Mayor Says AI Wrote Deloitte's Report

2SEP
$435,000 CITY HALL

Wellington's mayor says 'large chunks' of Deloitte's staffing review were written by AI. The council paid about $435,000 for a report it now disputes.

The document claimed the city had 330 too many employees. Filled positions got tallied alongside empty ones. Wage figures were three years old, borrowed from a lobby group.

The firm's response: it uses AI-enabled tools where appropriate, and a human signs off on findings. Andrew Little's response: a waste of time.

The real problem is not the drafting. Nobody checked arithmetic a spreadsheet would have caught. Big fees are supposed to buy scrutiny, not just words.

full brief & sources

⚡ Why this matters

  • A client publicly said its paid consulting deliverable was partly machine-written.
  • The errors were arithmetic, not judgment. That is what a review is for.
  • Every firm selling analysis now has to answer who, or what, wrote it.

🔍 What happened

  • Deloitte delivered a staffing review to Wellington City Council for about $435,000.
  • Mayor Andrew Little said large chunks of it were written by AI.
  • The review concluded the council was overstaffed by roughly 330 people.
  • Vacant positions were counted alongside filled ones.
  • Wage figures were three years old and came from a lobby group.
  • Deloitte says it uses AI-enabled tools where appropriate and a human signs off.

💬 Smart takes

  • Andrew Little, Wellington mayor: calls the review a waste of time and money, and says large chunks of it were AI-written.
  • Deloitte: says AI-enabled tools are used where appropriate, and that a human reviews and signs off on all findings.
  • Skeptic: a mayor handed a report saying he has 330 too many staff has every reason to attack how it was written.

🧭 Where this goes

  1. Likelypublic bodies start writing AI-disclosure clauses into consulting contracts.
  2. Likelythe big firms publish more detail on how AI-assisted work gets reviewed.
  3. Possiblethe report is withdrawn or reissued with corrected headcount numbers.
  4. Wild Carda client wins a refund on an AI-drafted deliverable and others follow.

🥄 The Spoon Take

Consulting has always been juniors, templates, and a partner's signature. The signature is what the client actually buys. Wellington paid for a review layer and the arithmetic proves nobody applied it. Disclosure rules will follow this story. They will not fix the part that broke.

🤔 Pushback

Large chunks written by AI is the mayor's characterisation. Deloitte has not conceded it, and the methodology has not been published.

·Mayor says 'large chunks' of Wellington council Deloitte report written by AI (RNZ)·Mayor: large chunks of Wellington council Deloitte report written by AI (Stuff)·Discussion thread (Hacker News)