About this episodeZach Levali, CTO of Rapid SOS, discusses how AI is modernizing 911 systems by enhancing situational awareness …AI summary
Zach Levali, CTO of Rapid SOS, discusses how AI is modernizing 911 systems by enhancing situational awareness for telecommunicators, automating language translation, and integrating data from IoT devices like crash detection sensors. The company serves over 5,700 public safety agencies, processing approximately 1 billion emergencies annually, with a focus on bridging siloed municipal systems to improve coordination and response times. Levali emphasizes that AI should augment human decision-making rather than replace it, particularly in high-stakes emergency scenarios where trust and privacy are paramount.
Key takeaways 8
Rapid SOS serves over 5,700 public safety agencies and handles approximately 1 billion emergencies annually, connecting diverse data sources including car manufacturers (OEMs), Apple/Google health data, and fire alarm systems.
AI is primarily deployed on administrative lines (like 311) or as an assistive layer for human telecommunicators on emergency lines, rather than as an autonomous agent answering 911 calls directly, to maintain public trust and handle complex emotional contexts.
The company addresses the 'siloed' nature of US 911 systems by bridging jurisdictional gaps; if an emergency moves across municipal lines, the full transcript and context are transferred to the next agency instantly.
AI-driven Quality Assurance (QA) allows for 100% call review instead of the traditional 1-3% sampling rate, enabling trainers to identify specific gaps in telecommunicator performance based on actual call data.
Language barriers are mitigated by AI auto-detecting and translating caller speech in real-time for the telecommunicator, reducing the previous delay of 30 seconds to 3 minutes required to dial in a third-party language line.
Privacy is maintained by keeping all sensitive data within the specific agency's footprint; data is not used to train the underlying large language models (LLMs) used by Rapid SOS.
Levali's career trajectory moved from golf tech (using automotive sensors for motion capture) to healthcare cloud (Athena Health), illustrating a pattern of applying technology from one sector to modernize another.
The strategy for modernizing legacy systems is 'adding a lane' rather than shutting down roads: introduce new technology alongside old systems, prove its efficacy, and gradually shift traffic without disrupting critical operations.
Notable quotes 5AI-generated: wording and quote attribution may be wrong. Use the play link to verify.
“We're really trying to help modernize the safety industry... taking it from that one phone call in out to responders via radio... to a much richer picture of what is happening in an emergency situation.”
▶ 1:19Levali explains the core mission of Rapid SOS: moving beyond simple voice calls to integrate a holistic ecosystem of data sources for first responders.
“Trust is the biggest thing. So, uh, 911 is a trusted system. We all trust that 911 will answer when we call. And so, we have to maintain the trust of the community. We have to maintain the trust of the workers.”
Levali identifies trust as the primary barrier to AI adoption in public safety, noting that reticence exists because 911 has not undergone the same digital revolutions as other sectors.
“In the 911 situation, you need you're basically giving a bunch of information and you just want to know that that information was received... You want to know when things show up.”
▶ 10:56Levali distinguishes emergency calls from customer service interactions, highlighting that callers in emergencies seek confirmation of receipt and response, not transactional outcomes.
“Harness the wisdom of the team that built the road that everybody's driving on. So don't discount those folks... Bring in other people to find the new plane or to find the new road and then design the road like adding a new lane to a road.”
▶ 30:16Levali advises executives on how to manage legacy system modernization: respect institutional knowledge while introducing new technologies gradually without disrupting current operations.
“Partner every time you can and really understand what your comparative advantage is and only build in that. So for us, it's the connective tissue. It's the the bridging of information.”
▶ 18:55Levali explains Rapid SOS's business strategy: partnering with device manufacturers (Apple, Google, Honeywell) rather than building hardware, focusing instead on integrating disparate data streams.
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