Motorola Solutions says its AI-powered 911 software saves time and eases pressure on emergency response teams
The company’s AI software can improve the human element of emergency response.
Motorola Solutions is a Chicago-based provider of technology and communications solutions focused on public safety and enterprise security. It has about 21,000 employees worldwide.
Situation analysis: What problem was the company trying to solve?
The National Emergency Number Association estimates that 240 million 911 calls are made in the US each year. But fragmented emergency-response systems across various agencies and organizations can lead to dangerous delays.
“You hope to never call 911, but when you do, it needs to work,” Jehan Wickramasuriya, the corporate vice president of AI and platforms at Motorola Solutions, told B-17.
He added that call takers’ jobs can be demanding and unpredictable, and they’re often under intense pressure. “There can be a high level of stress if there’s an active shooter or domestic disturbance,” he said. “They’re trying to keep a caller calm and simultaneously find out if they need medical help.” Meanwhile, he said, callers may be “speaking so fast that it’s difficult to understand and retain everything they say.”
Jehan Wickramasuriya is the corporate vice president of AI and platforms at Motorola Solutions.
Pinpointing a caller’s location adds a layer of complexity. Mobile 911 calls are typically routed based on cell-tower locations rather than the caller’s actual position. This requires calls to be redirected, adding several seconds to response times.
“At the end of the day it’s a data problem,” Wickramasuriya said, “because a lot of information needs to get transmitted in each call.”
Motorola Solutions is using AI to consolidate this data in a single platform.
Key staff and stakeholders
The company structures its AI research team around specialized AI domains, such as computer vision and speech and audio processing, rather than individual product lines.
Wickramasuriya said the core AI team consisted of about 50 scientists, developers, and engineers who collaborate closely with hundreds of product managers, designers, and user-experience specialists.
Motorola Solutions also works with various cloud and technology vendors on its AI-enabled products and services.
AI in action
In June, Motorola Solutions launched Vesta NXT, software designed to help 911 call handlers manage emergency calls. It brings data from various public-safety systems onto one platform, helping the handlers gather and summarize information.
The tool uses AI to surface details including the caller’s location and, for callers who have opted to share their medical profile from their phone, any underlying health conditions. It can also suggest the best entrance to a building. “That’s important information for first responders,” Wickramasuriya said.
The software has translation and transcription capabilities, helping English speakers and non-English speakers communicate. AI also helps call handlers manage nonemergency calls — by streamlining the reporting of issues like abandoned cars or stolen property, call handlers can focus more on critical emergencies.
Most important, AI can improve the human element of emergency response. “AI is working in the background to help the call taker attend to the person on the other end of the line,” Wickramasuriya said.
Did it work, and how did leaders know?
Motorola Solutions says roughly 60% of 911 call centers in the US use its call-handling software. It’s transitioning existing Vesta 911 users to its new system with the AI features.
The company says these AI tools are already translating millions of minutes of audio each month and have helped lighten emergency-call handlers’ workloads partly by resolving nonemergency calls and connecting callers to other resources.
Lee County is the first Public Safety Answering Point, which is a call center that handles emergency calls and coordinates responses, to use the VESTA NXT. Motorola Solutions said administrators there found the AI-generated searchable text transcripts and real-time summaries of 911 calls that call handlers can share with dispatchers and first responders helped save time and alleviate stress for call handlers.
What’s next?
Wickramasuriya said the company was focused on improving Vesta NXT.
He said the goal was to “expand the usefulness” of the software by integrating it more deeply into existing workflows, including by developing features that connect first responders directly with dispatchers and call takers.
Another aim, he said, is to help understaffed 911 call centers “understand their staffing needs and identify which call takers are handling high-stress situations and address stress and fatigue among call handlers.”
