Victorian Councils — BAF Digital AI Stream

The baseline data your BAF application needs — and your acquittal reporting will require.

Ethnobot runs 50 AI-mediated staff interviews across your workforce in 3 weeks and produces the workforce readiness profile DTF needs to see — before go-live, and at acquittal.

The problem

Two problems. One study solves both.

1
Your BAF application scores on Business Impact (35% of total).
Without quantified workforce readiness data, that criterion is weak. Councils that can demonstrate a measured baseline outperform those that can't.
2
DTF requires outcome reporting at acquittal.
Councils that go live without a pre-implementation baseline cannot prove impact at acquittal. If there's no "before," you can't show the "after." The baseline you capture now becomes your acquittal evidence later.

"Ethnobot is not an AI tool. It's the diagnostic layer you run before any AI tool goes live."

Research package

What the study produces

💬
50 AI-mediated staff interviews
Completed asynchronously across your workforce — no scheduling, no focus groups, no facilitation overhead.
Core methodology
📊
Workforce Readiness Profile
Archetype distribution across 6 adoption types — who is ready, who needs support, and where the adoption risk sits.
Primary deliverable
🗺
Trust & Adoption Map
Where resistance and adoption patterns sit across your organisation, and why — grounded in staff voice, not assumption.
Diagnostic layer
📋
Executive Brief (2–3 pages)
The document that goes to CEO and Council. Headline findings, workforce distribution, and recommended actions.
For leadership
💬
Quote Library
Verbatim staff responses, anonymised, formatted for internal comms and business case support.
For comms teams
📄
BAF-ready baseline summary
Formatted for DTF Business Impact reporting. The structured evidence your application and acquittal both need.
For DTF reporting
Timeline
3 weeks
From kickoff to final report delivery.
Budget line
Evaluation cost
Can be written directly into your BAF grant budget as an evaluation or research cost.
Acquittal obligation

Your acquittal obligation starts now

DTF outcomes reporting asks: what changed? Without a workforce baseline captured before your AI tools go live, you cannot answer that question with evidence.

The acquittal risk is not theoretical — it applies to every council that receives BAF funding. The Ethnobot study is the before measurement that makes your after measurement meaningful.

Before go-live
Workforce Baseline
Captured by Ethnobot study
→
At acquittal
Provable Impact
Required by DTF reporting

Without the baseline, you have a grant outcome to report and no evidence to back it up.

BAF window

BAF applications close 30 April

There are 15 days. Councils that have their workforce baseline data in hand when they apply have a measurable advantage on the Business Impact criterion. Councils that apply without it are hoping the assessors don't notice the gap.

Book a briefing this week →

Need to confirm the study fits your BAF budget?

We can scope it, confirm the budget line, and get interview links to your staff within 24 hours of kickoff.

Book a briefing →See a sample report →
Scope

What this is — and what it's not

This is NOT
×An AI deployment tool
×A survey (Likert scales don't satisfy DTF evidence requirements)
×A gap analysis or systems audit
This IS
✓50 real staff conversations, AI-mediated, completed asynchronously
✓Peer-reviewed ethnographic methodology at survey speed
✓Evidence-grade baseline data that stands up to DTF scrutiny

Talk to us before you submit.

We can scope the study, confirm it fits your BAF budget, and get interview links to your staff within 24 hours of kickoff. No procurement process required — direct engagement under standard council vendor terms.

Book a briefing →See a sample report →