City of Melbourne adopts Databricks AI platform

City of Melbourne (CoM) recently announced it has selected Databricks to unify its data and AI capabilities and accelerate the delivery of AI-powered services across the city.

The city’s Data Central Platform now supports more than 700 datasets in production and is helping the council advance over 40 priority AI use cases. These include a knowledge bank, predictive city operations, citizen service intelligence, smarter financial management, and a new pedestrian chatbot that enables users to explore foot traffic patterns using natural language.

In 2023, a strategic review of CoM’s technical landscape identified a clear opportunity to modernise how data is used across the organisation. Teams were spending significant time manually sourcing and combining data from multiple systems, while inconsistent data standards and siloed infrastructure limited collaboration and slowed adoption of advanced analytics and AI. In response, CoM consolidated onto Databricks, migrating from a legacy stack of mixed tools, siloed solutions and on-premises infrastructure.

Databricks said one of the high-impact use cases is a new pedestrian chatbot that allows council staff, city planners and local businesses to explore Melbourne foot traffic data using plain language rather than submitting technical data requests. Built with Databricks’ AI agent, Genie, and supported by Unity Catalog for governance and AI/BI Dashboards for visualisation, the chatbot draws on near real-time data from the City of Melbourne’s City Sensing IoT sensor network.

“The partnership with Databricks focuses on creating AI solutions designed to solve real-world challenges while building internal capability in enterprise AI — aligned with CoM’s strategic priorities and AI principles,” said Councillor Andrew Rowse, Innovation and Education Portfolio, City of Melbourne. “Ultimately, every solution we build is in service of the Melbourne community, and the foundation we’ve built with Databricks gives us the confidence to scale that impact across the city.”

“The best AI fades into the experience, helping organisations move faster, make better decisions, and deliver stronger outcomes. That’s what the City of Melbourne is building with Databricks: a secure, governed foundation for data and AI that powers more responsive city services, smarter operations, and real impact for residents,” said Adam Beavis, Vice President and Country Manager, Databricks ANZ.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mujie