Case studies

Supporting more than one million NSW customers who rely on the NSW Photo Card, including the elderly, customers with a disability and new migrants

Launched in April 2025, the NSW Digital Photo Card pilot provides citizens with an upgraded digital photo card, giving them a more secure way to prove their identity. The upgraded card allows customers to digitally share information needed for transactions without having to hand over their phone or reach for their wallet. The pilot is also helping make digital verification more inclusive, especially for customers without a driver licence. 

Helping essential workers save time through online renewals of their Working with Children Check

The Working with Children Check (WWCC) is a requirement for anyone who works or volunteers in child-related work in NSW, including social workers, teachers, health and childcare workers. A new digital solution allows these workers to renew their WWCC online in as little as 10 minutes, without needing to present identity documents in person at a Service NSW centre.

Empowering NSW councils to adopt AI to streamline local development applications

The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) adopted the Test and Buy Innovation model to adopt an outcome-based procurement approach to uncover artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that could help NSW councils improve workflow efficiency in the local development application (DA) process, particularly during the pre-lodgement phase. This work aims to supplements the Early Adopter Grants program for Councils, to accelerate housing delivery.

Outcome-focused and agile procurement attracts innovation to solve complex digital challenges​

The NSW Government developed an innovation procurement model and piloted centralised support to help agency buying teams adopt innovation-friendly buying practices that:​

• used outcome-focused challenge statements instead of prescriptive specifications​
• engaged suppliers early through collaborative discovery processes​
• made it easier for small and medium enterprises to participate in procurement​

Simplifying and streamlining school visitor check-ins

The School Visitor Check-in is a digital sign-in system for visitors and contractors at every NSW public school. Visitors and contractors check-in to schools using their ServiceNSW app or through the School Concierge app. This makes check-ins simple and fast and increases every school’s privacy and security practices. The system was developed by the NSW Department of Education in partnership with Service NSW.

Trialling a purpose-built artificial intelligence (AI) tool for educational use in schools

The NSW Department of Education has developed NSWEduChat, a purpose-built generative AI tool for educational use in schools. NSWEduChat is currently the safest and most cost-effective generative AI tool available for our schools and staff. NSWEduChat is based in our own cloud environment in Sydney, Australia. Data is secure, caters to the NSW educational context and aligns to the NSW AI Assessment Framework.

Land iQ is designed to improve the planning system by helping NSW government agencies make faster, smarter decisions about the use of land

It’s a living platform designed to continue to evolve and adapt to the future needs of users, leveraging new digital resources as they become available. It’s available to NSW Government agencies while we continue to refine the tool and develop license options to make it available to other levels of government, councils, Local Aboriginal Land Councils, researchers and industry.

Testing innovative technology to improve public safety in crowded places

Funded by the Digital Restart Fund (DRF), the Creating Safer Crowded Places project is an example of the NSW Government’s commitment to using innovative technology to drive real impact in the community. This innovative platform draws data from the CCTV network, social media, and environmental systems to generate insights on crowd behaviour and mood while ensuring visitor anonymity.

Using AI to revolutionise road maintenance and operations

Asset AI® is a new digital tool helping asset maintenance teams in the NSW Government and local councils make our roads safer by using AI driven data to streamline road maintenance tasks. Cameras and sensors fixed to Transport for NSW (TfNSW) and council vehicles collect information about the roads. The insights help find problems on the roads faster, making them safer for drivers and pedestrians.

Building strong digital foundations

The State Digital Assets (SDA) Reuse Policy promotes and governs the reuse of SDAs across all NSW Government portfolios and agencies. SDAs are digital solutions used by more than one NSW Government agency and encompass applications, technology infrastructure and data. They are the building blocks of efficient, proactive, customised and seamless government services.

The Process and Technology Harmonisation (PaTH) Program

Consolidating multiple finance and technology systems to simplify our corporate and shared service system and support through the PaTH program.

An industry-informed plan to deliver a resilient pipeline of digitally skilled and capable people

The NSW Digital Skills and Workforce Compact is a 7-year, cross-sector collaboration between the NSW Government, the digital industry, and the education and training sector. It aims to address the projected 2030 digital workforce shortfall of 85,000 by implementing innovative and industry-informed strategies.

Helping government and customers through easier and cheaper digital communications

The Home Owner Helper (HOH) project will create a solution design to assist the 150 government customers who receive change in property ownership details from the NSW land registry, so they can more easily contact property owners. This will improve service delivery, support the economy and drive productivity through quicker, more accurate and cheaper means of contacting customers (such as for water service interruptions and biosecurity issues), and reduce government postage and debt recovery costs.

Advancing the understanding of travel patterns to better inform infrastructure investment, policy reform and planning activities

Activity-Based Models are a data-driven reusable digital product that enable detailed analysis and testing of the activities and related travel patterns of individuals and households. This provides future travel demand forecasts (spanning 5 to 40 years) within the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area.