From Cassette Tapes to AI: Forecaz inspires the next generation of Urban Planners
- Team Forecaz
- Nov 6, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The AI Revolution presents the same career opportunities for today's students as the Digital Revolution did 45 years ago, and human skills remain central to how technology gets applied.
Urban Planning can be an exciting career using AI, data science, and local expertise to help councils and utilities plan smarter, more sustainable communities.
Forecaz CEO Bradley Rasmussen visited Indooroopilly State High School to present to over ninety Grade 10 and 11 Digital Technology and Geography students, connecting the history of computing to the rise of artificial intelligence and showing students how technology shapes the cities they live in.
A Cassette Tape from the Past
Bradley opened his presentation holding up a physical cassette tape. When he asked the room who knew how to use one, fewer than ten hands went up. That cassette tape was his USB stick in Year 10. His school had just received its first computer, an Apple IIe, with no disk drives and a cassette player to load programs. The smartphone sitting in those students' pockets today is more than a million times faster than that machine.
A Turning Point in Technological Change
Bradley was at the start of the Digital Revolution. In Year 10, he was stepping into a world shifting from no computers to computers everywhere. Today's Year 10 students are standing at the same kind of turning point, except this time the shift is from no AI to AI being present in almost everything.
Revisiting Old Fears of New Technology
To put the moment in context, Bradley showed students headlines from his youth.
“Robots could destroy a million jobs globally. ”Robots could take over 38% of U.S. jobs in 15 years.”
Those headlines are more than 45 years old. Fully autonomous robots that think and act like humans still do not exist. Replace the word robot with AI, and the same fear-driven narratives reappear today.
Human Skills at the Centre of Innovation
Bradley's message to students was direct. Technology evolves. Human creativity, adaptability, and purpose stay at the centre of that evolution. AI is not replacing those qualities anytime soon.
How Forecaz Uses AI for Real Planning Outcomes
He then walked students through how Forecaz applies AI through its Forecaz platform, combining data science, human expertise, and local insight to help councils and utilities predict population growth, infrastructure demand, and the future shape of their communities.
Hands-on Learning with Real Spatial Data
Using the school's own location as a live example, students explored the spatial data that feeds Forecaz's models. They identified their own Real Property Descriptions of their home address. The students saw firsthand how the technology planning Australia's cities can lead to future careers in urban planning, data science, and technology.
Encouraging the Next Generation of Planners
Bradley made a direct case for urban planning as a career path, encouraging students to see themselves, not as bystanders to the AI Revolution, but as the people who build it.
Forecaz thanks Robin Butler for the invitation to present. The company sees sharing knowledge with the next generation as part of its responsibility to the communities it serves.
Bradley’s post on LinkedIn.
Want to bring Forecaz's story to your school or organisation?
Get in touch with the Forecaz Team.