What happened
Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said "large chunks" of a $435,000 Deloitte staffing review were written by AI, after the report was found to contain significant errors including double-counted roles, employment data three years out of date, and part-time staff counted as full-time, overstating staffing costs by an estimated $21.5 million. The headline recommendation to cut 330 FTE roles was later revised down to 284. Deloitte confirmed it uses "AI-enabled tools where appropriate" but says analysis and conclusions require human sign-off; it has not specified which sections were AI-generated.