The annual flurry of harvest activity is no small task to manage, with GrainCorp known to hire up to 3,000 casual workers in the harvest season to help shoulder the workload.
Ever keen to innovate, GrainCorp’s Customer Experience team is experimenting with the use of an AI tool to support the harvest task for Site Managers and harvest casuals, and ultimately improve the experience for grain growers.
The tool, affectionately known as Chatbot Charlie, works as an encyclopedia to find vital information from safety procedures to grain quality specifications in a split second.
“Instead of our teams combing through large documents in the heat of the moment, ‘Charlie’ speeds up the process with an instant answer, giving valuable minutes back to growers at a critical time of year,” explains Customer Experience Manager Izzi Hutchison.
“This tool also ensures all Site Managers have access to the same information, which is critical for new staff, and will ultimately help with safety and efficiency on our sites during their busiest period,” says Izzi.
First trialled in 2023 and now in its second pilot round, the chatbot was rolled out to some Queensland and New South Wales teams during the sorghum harvest and is showing pleasing results.
GrainCorp’s newly appointed Site Manager for Narrabri NSW, James Madden says Chatbot Charlie was a huge help in getting him up to speed when stepping into the role.
“I can type in a question like, “What documents are needed to induct a contractor?” and ‘Charlie’ will come back to me within seconds,” says James.
“This tool will be extremely useful during the winter crop harvest when I’ll be onboarding new casuals who need to be ready with answers when growers come to deliver,” James says.
In the months leading up to winter crop harvest, our Customer Experience team will continue to build out and refine Chatbot Charlie’s capabilities.
“The more people who use it, the better the tool will become – so I’m keen to get as many people using ‘Charlie’ as possible,” Izzi says.
“From being able to find specific documents, to translating information into multiple languages – it’s a fantastic tool.”
