How enterprise architecture enabled one of Australia's most ambitious applied AI initiatives in education - from small pilot to production scale across 2,200+ schools.
NSWEduChat represents one of Australia's most ambitious applied AI initiatives in education. Joining during the initial small pilot stage in 2023, I provided enterprise and solution architecture support as the programme scaled to production deployment across NSW's entire public education system.
AI Enterprise Architect Role
Served as the AI Enterprise Architect for the department during this period, responsible for establishing architectural standards and patterns for AI deployment across the organization.
🎯 Scale
2,200+ schools across metropolitan, regional and rural NSW
110,000+ teaching staff supported with AI-powered tools
200,000+ total staff with access to AI capabilities
The work spanned solution architecture for AI-powered applications (working closely with the engineering team), architectural reviews of third-party AI solutions, defining the department's first AI platform reference architecture, and presenting to the Architecture Review Board for governance endorsement.
What I Did
As Enterprise and Solution Architect, I delivered comprehensive architecture support spanning application design, governance, platform patterns, and third-party solution reviews.
Solution Architecture for AI Applications
Authored C4-model architecture (system context, container, component diagrams) for multiple AI-enabled applications across the NSWEduChat platform.
Architecture Governance
Authored and presented five architecture governance submissions to the department's Architecture Review Board.
AI Platform Reference Architecture
Created the department's first AI platform reference architecture - a layered model showing the full stack from Users and Channels through API Layer, AI Enabled Applications, Business Process, Business Services, Technology Services, Data Services, External Services, and AI Services.
Mapped ingestion sources (URH, SharePoint, Google Drive, DoE Intranet, trusted external websites, NESA curriculum) and enterprise services
AI Pattern Catalogue
Separately created a seven-category AI pattern catalogue and built out detailed patterns for:
Remaining layers defined as roadmap but not progressed
Well-Architected Framework Review
Conducted comprehensive well-architected framework review of the NSWEduChat solution, assessing the platform against architectural best practices and identifying improvement areas as it scaled from pilot to production.
Third-Party AI Solution Review
Conducted advisory services review of a first-of-a-kind custom AI solution procured from an external partner.
Key Architecture Contributions
C4 Model Architecture
Comprehensive C4 model architecture across system context, container, and component levels for all major AI applications, with authentication/authorisation flows, ingestion sequence diagrams, and infrastructure diagrams.
ARB Governance Navigation
Steered a high-risk AI programme through multiple iterations of the department's Architecture Review Board process, producing comprehensive documentation, resolving stakeholder concerns, presenting at ARB, and managing follow-on actions. This required careful management given departmental nervousness around deploying AI directly to staff and students at scale.
Accessibility Architecture
Designed text-to-voice capability using Azure Custom Neural Voice with professional voice talent, addressing the 21% of public education students requiring adjustments.
Emerging Reference Patterns
Captured and formalised reusable departmental patterns:
Technologies & Standards
Key Takeaways
Departments adopting AI at scale need more than general governance frameworks - they need enterprise level AI guardrails, enhanced scrutiny for first-of-a-kind solutions, and scalable ingestion architectures that can grow from hundreds to tens of thousands of documents.
Pattern-based approaches to AI platform architecture help teams build consistently and reuse proven designs across multiple applications.
Making complex AI topics simple enough for stakeholders to review and engage with is critical to securing governance endorsement and building organisational confidence in AI deployment at scale.
Client Testimonial
Thomas Alex
Project Manager
NSW Department of Education
“I had the pleasure of working with Vinod Ralh on the AI project at the NSW Department of Education, where he joined as the Enterprise Architect and quickly became an invaluable asset. Vinod played a key role in drafting and refining the Project Initiation Document (PID), which secured approval from...
I work as an enterprise architect specialising in mission-driven organisations - education, health, aged care, and community services. NSWEduChat represents enterprise-scale AI deployment in public education, establishing architectural patterns and governance frameworks for AI applications serving hundreds of thousands of users.
Learn more about NSWEduChat:
NSW Department of Education - NSWEduChat↗