Grand Traverse County 911 AI Deflects 30% of Non-Emergency Calls

Grand Traverse County's 911 center nearly scrapped its artificial intelligence call-handling system before it ever found its footing. Now, months after a technically troubled launch, the platform is deflecting 30 percent of non-emergency calls and freeing human dispatchers for emergencies.

Central Dispatch Director Corey LeCureux told county commissioners the AI system, purchased last July from Seattle-based Aurelian, did not go live until mid-October after a series of technical problems. When it finally launched, it was deflecting just 3 to 5 percent of non-emergency calls, a fraction of its 30 percent target. The gap was significant enough that LeCureux said there was a point he wanted to abandon the system entirely.

"Not only was it more work for our people, but it was more work for me and support staff," LeCureux said. "We're investing a lot of time in it."

After LeCureux raised concerns with Aurelian, the vendor provided additional resources and the system's performance improved substantially over the following two months, reaching the 30 percent threshold.

The AI handles only the non-emergency line. Every call that comes through 911 goes directly to a human dispatcher, and LeCureux was unambiguous about keeping it that way.

"When you call 911, you have the right, you deserve to talk to a human being," he said. "We're not going to do that. We don't need to do that. And we would never want to do that."

The stakes behind that distinction are larger than they might appear. Grand Traverse County Central Dispatch processes roughly 54,500 non-emergency calls per year, and according to LeCureux, up to 60 percent of those calls do not require the attention of an emergency dispatcher. "It's a little-known fact that most calls taken by central dispatch are not 911 calls," he has said. At its current 30 percent deflection rate, LeCureux said the system could eventually handle between 25,000 and 30,000 calls annually, which would exceed by more than three times what the best human call takers can handle in a year.

The county approved a three-year contract with Aurelian AI of Seattle, with a projected cost of $60,000 in the first year and $72,000 in each subsequent year. The contract is funded through the existing 911 surcharge on telephone bills. Aurelian's AI assistant, identified in vendor materials as "Ava," captures caller information and routes callers to the appropriate government department. The system has been deployed in two other Michigan counties and dozens of sites nationally.

The slow start tested the county's patience and consumed significant staff time before Aurelian's intervention stabilized performance. Whether the system can sustain its gains, and whether the 25,000-to-30,000-call projection holds as call patterns shift, will be among the practical questions Central Dispatch tracks in the months ahead.