New Orleans 911 is using artificial intelligence to help call center operators handle emergency calls, and the department's head says the A. I. program is designed to save time and end frustrations for both operators and people who call to report emergencies.
"We discovered that for each auto accident in Orleans Parish, we pretty much get 20 or more phone calls to 911," New Orleans 911 director Karl Fasold told WWL's Tommy Tucker. "We have a very participatory and helpful public that wants to make sure that we know about these auto accidents."
New Orleans 911 director Karl Fasold says the A. I. agents only work in specific circumstances, such as when all of the human operators are already on the line and a call is received from within 200 meters of a crash. This, he says, helps to cut down on operators taking redundant calls about crashes they already know about.
"When you call 911, you're going to a human 90 percent of the time," Fasold said. "When the A-I agent says, 'Are you calling about this accident,' and you say, 'yes,' then it says, 'Okay. If you're involved or if you have further information, please stay on the line. Otherwise, you can hang up. Most of the time, we get, 'Okay, thank you,' and people hang up."
According to Fasold, the AI agent also frees up human operators from having to follow up on calls they didn't answer.
"At that point, you're not an abandoned call, so we don't have to try to call you back," Fasold said, noting that if investigators need to get in contact with witnesses, they can find their contact information through the 911 center's call logs. "We're trying to be respectful of people and not have them wait in a queue to tell us what we already know."
Fasold added the AI agents allow the human workers to get to more pressing emergencies.
"You haven't been talking to somebody while another 911 call was holding that might have been about something more serious that (a caller) really needed to speak to someone as quickly as possible," Fasold said.
