Snohomish County 911 among the first in the nation to use AI to field calls
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. - Snohomish County 911 is embracing AI, saying it’s benefiting the public and helping dispatchers.
So far, they’ve utilized one AI system to help process hundreds of thousands of calls.
Some may be concerned that AI is answering their 911 calls, but Sno 911 is reassuring the public that emergency calls are always answered by a human.
"When people call 911 they want to talk to a human being, we know that, we want that," said Kurt Mills, Snohomish County 911 Executive Director.
AI answers the phone for Snohomish 911 calls
For the past 3 months, dispatchers have been answering 911 calls alongside an AI partner named Cora.
Assisting in chaotic emergency calls, Cora does not speak to the caller, but serves as an added layer to help dispatchers gather vital details.
"When that call is answered, it could go in 500 different directions and the human being has to guide it through, make sure they ask all the questions to make sure that we can send the right unit to give them the assistance they need. All it is, is like an assistant that gives checkmarks and confirmation that they collected all the information," Mills said.
Why is Snohomish 911 using AI?
The center, which serves approximately 900,000 residents, receives up to 2,000 emergency calls daily.
They’ve also seen a major spike in non-emergency calls.
Over the past five years, Sno 911 has seen a 90 % increase in non-emergency calls.
"People call for anything, ‘Can you come over to the house and heat up my soup for dinner?’ Anything you can imagine," Mills said.
Mills said the surge led to longer wait times, especially during peak hours, for dispatchers to pick up the call.
"We wanted a solution," Mills said.
Mills says Ava has been their solution since late 2024, and they have processed more than 200,000 non-emergency calls through Ava.
While Cora works in the background, Ava directly answers non-emergency calls.
‘Ava’ and ‘Cora’ fielding non-emergency calls
After getting clearance first from Sno 911, we made a mock call to see how Ava operates.
We called the non-emergency number and Ava picked up immediately. It asked for details like name and address and asked what we were calling about.
We reported a parked car in a fire lane and, after a few follow-up questions like whether we wanted an officer to contact us, Ava processed the call by saying a dispatcher would review the call and follow up if needed.
The entire call took about 3 minutes.
Cora and Ava were developed by Aurelian, a Seattle-based startup company. Aurelian Co-Founder Max Keenan noted that human dispatchers have traditionally been overburdened by handling both high-stakes emergencies and minor complaints simultaneously.
"The same people who answer 911 calls answer non-emergency," Keenan said. "You train them as Navy SEALs and use them as mall cops."
Keenan says it’s hard to find enough people to work at dispatch centers and wait times for non-emergency calls can often last up to 40 minutes across the country.
Keenan says Ava was born after a hair salon owner complained to him about an incident when she wanted to alert an officer about a traffic situation. She called the non-emergency line but ended up hanging up after a long wait. Keenan says she got frustrated and called 911.
AI ranks urgency of Snohomish 911 calls
Aurelian says Ava’s ability to screen and rank the urgency of non-emergency calls is a game changer for public safety, allowing people who need help the most to be prioritized.
"These are important. They are calling for real reasons," Keenan said.
Ava went online on the day of the historic bomb cyclone.
During the first 48 hours of the storm, the non-emergency line received roughly 2,500 calls which is triple the normal volume.
While 400 callers received automated text information regarding utility services, Ava flagged 149 of those non-emergency calls as potential emergencies and immediately transferred them to human dispatchers.
Among those flagged calls was a woman who contacted the non-emergency line during the storm because her husband was trapped in a chair lift between floors. Because the caller noted her husband had an underlying health condition, Ava recognized the medical risk and immediately routed the call to an emergency dispatcher.
But FOX 13 asked Snohomish County 911 on whether the AI technology will lead to fewer jobs.
"I am glad you asked that — absolutely not," Mills said.
Mills says there will always be a need for humans in their line of work.
"Ava or Cora is never going to replace a human being in an emergency," Mills said.
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The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle anchor Hana Kim.