TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Grand Traverse County will soon be turning to artificial intelligence to handle non-urgent calls. In a 7-1 vote on Wednesday, June 18, the Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of Aurelian AI – an automated system that will answer inquiries made to the county’s non-emergency Central Dispatch line. The lone dissenting vote came from Commissioner T.J. Andrews.
The request for the AI system came from Grand Traverse County Dispatch Deputy Director Corey LeCureux, who said the AI-powered system will help streamline operations and reduce the burden on human dispatchers.
Both the Traverse City Ticker and 9&10 News reported that the purchase involves a 3-year contract with the first year being a trial run that can be cancelled at any time, with a prorated refund to the county if needed.
The idea isn’t to replace emergency 911 services – it’s to make sure the people handling emergencies can focus on just that. With over 54,000 non-emergency calls to Central Dispatch each year, this new system will take the pressure off human staff by managing up to 67% of those inquiries according to Aurelian – and it’s estimated to save around 1,200 hours of staff time annually.
Additionally, instead of shutting down the Central Dispatch line during times of high call volumes and sending callers to a pre-recorded message, the system will now connect community members to an AI agent. 9&10 News reports that community members will also have the option to text the AI system – and will always have the option to talk to a human at any point.
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Author: JBaron
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