Northern NSW · Research & Advisory
For law firms, universities and not-for-profits: responsible AI and research work built to stand up to procurement review, a funder's audit or a courtroom.
Why engineered
AI is already inside institutional work. The question is no longer whether to adopt it, but how to adopt it defensibly. Courts have sanctioned practitioners for filing AI-fabricated citations, and Robodebt showed what automation costs when the law, the human and the audit trail are taken out. The lesson is not to avoid automation. It is that judgment should never be automated without accountability built in.
Every system we build follows the same discipline: the source record first, a human owning every call, and an audit trail as the product, not an afterthought. And nothing arrives as a big bang. Systems are built the way a good matter is run: staged, proven at each step, never live until the person accountable for the outcome trusts it.
What we do
We help partners make complex work legible and deliverable through strategy, digital systems, governance-aware documentation and public-facing execution. Our work is founder-led, senior-led and shaped by 15+ years of executive digital and AI delivery experience alongside deep university and institutional literacy.
Based in New Brighton, Northern NSW.
Our services
We help research teams, institutions and funded initiatives shape ideas into structured, governable and deliverable work.
We design practical digital systems and responsible AI workflows that support research, operations, communication and legal delivery. From research knowledge systems to litigation-grade evidence and matter systems: governed, grounded and auditable.
We bridge strategy and execution through product ownership, web delivery, UX thinking and structured production.
We prepare the documents that make complex work buyable, reviewable and ready to proceed.
Where we work
The method doesn't change: decompose, build, validate, supervise. The environment does. We work in three, and only where we can lead well.
Litigation and compliance workflows engineered into auditable, AI-enabled systems. Exhibit registers, evidence review, pleadings analysis, matter knowledge systems.
→ Legal EngineeringResearch translation, digital systems and procurement-ready delivery for university teams, research programs and funded initiatives.
→ Universities & ResearchMission-driven organisations, government-facing programs and coastal & environmental initiatives: governable delivery where evidence, documentation and consequence matter.
→ Not For ProfitWhy Low Tides
"Calm, credible work that stands up in institutional environments."
Every engagement is led by William O'Keeffe. No juniors on the client-facing work.
We understand how universities, research teams and government bodies actually operate: procurement, governance and all.
We work from evidence, systems and long-horizon thinking. We do not take a volume approach or promise more than we can deliver.
Supplier readiness
View our capability statement, governance commitments, responsible AI position and request current supplier documents for RFQs, quotes and institutional onboarding.
Conflicts disclosed early. Transparent scoping. Clear documentation.
WHS, privacy, environmental responsibility and modern slavery commitments.
Human-reviewed. Explainable. Never fed with confidential data without approval.
Built to sit inside the courts' AI practice notes and professional conduct obligations: auditable by design, because in institutional work the audit always comes.
Research Notes
Practitioners have been sanctioned for filing AI-fabricated citations. Robodebt ended in a Royal Commission. The lesson isn't to avoid AI. It's that the difference between a defensible system and a disaster is engineering, not the model.
Responsible AI in research does not start with tooling. It starts with boundaries, purpose and a clear understanding of what should never be delegated.
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