Back to log2026-04-10

Rostering automation projected to save a million Australian dollars annually.

Build / Hospitalityrosteringai-opshospitality

A 350-staff hospitality group runs operations across thirteen sites. The rostering process used to be a fortnightly spreadsheet pass with three managers cross-checking penalty rates, qualifications, and leave - eight hours of work per cycle, with errors that compounded on shift swap.

Cognitiv built an AI-assisted scheduler that ingests availability, awards, and leave; runs a constraint solver against twenty-eight rules; and emits a draft roster for human sign-off. Predicted annual saving: $1M AUD. The board cared about the dollar figure. The seventy-five per cent efficiency lift on the rostering team was the harder number to land because efficiency lifts are usually theatre - this one was measured across both ends of the workflow.

The system runs as a weekly cycle. A human still signs off the draft. The constraint solver respects the actual EBA, not a paraphrase of it.