Artificial intelligence seems increasingly hard to avoid recently. It’s there when you search something on Google, it takes your order in the drive through, and as of this summer, Yadkin County’s 911 center is using an AI assistant called AVA to field non-emergency calls.
On this week’s edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Rachel Moody set out to learn how this new technology has been impacting operators and callers.
Yadkin County Emergency Communications became the first 911 center in the state to implement AVA. Operations Director Amanda Wilhoit says it used to be really hard to focus on 911 calls with the non-emergency line continuously ringing in the background.
"It just got really quiet when we went live with this because the calls stopped coming in," Wilhoit says.
Now those calls go to the automated voice assistant. The phone rings for a second before the AI answers:
"My name is Ava. What is the address or location you’re calling about?"
Officials say nearly three out of every four calls made to that line are just people looking for information. Now AVA can redirect them to the right department or send helpful links. Since the technology went live in July, Wilhoit says the tool has saved dispatchers hundreds of hours.
She says it’s helpful since call volume has grown, while the budget has not. One additional staff member would cost about $66,000 a year. AVA costs roughly half of that.
The technology also offers a language translation function.
Still Wilhoit says some callers are hesitant about the AI.
"It takes some getting used to. It is different than talking to a real person," Wilhoit says. "We have a few people that they call and they get mad, and or they'll sit and they'll say operator until it transfers them in."
She says about 23% of the calls that have gone through AVA were passed onto dispatchers because the citizen asked for an operator, or because they mentioned words such as shooting, fire, or ambulance. Real dispatchers are still responsible for emergency calls.
But while AVA sounds a little different than a real dispatcher, Wilhoit says it’s still going to ask the same questions and make sure you get the help you need.
“You’re all set," AVA says at the end of the call. "If anything else comes up later, you can call back anytime. Take care.”
Yadkin is one of over 60 call centers nationwide using AVA.