Richmond officials want artificial intelligence to field up to 60% of the city's nonemergency calls, but more than a year after the system launched, it's handling less than a third of them without passing callers to a live dispatcher. The gap between ambition and performance is now drawing scrutiny from City Council members, some of whom say residents don't even realize they're talking to a machine.
A Big Goal, a Small Share of Calls Handled
According to Axios, which first reported on the city's AI assistant back in July, Richmond's Amazon Connect system transferred nearly 81% of roughly 111,000 nonemergency calls to the city's 911 center during last fiscal year, meaning it handled or routed elsewhere only the remaining 19.3% without a dispatcher ever picking up. The system, which launched in April 2025, is designed to help callers navigate RVA 311 requests, police information, animal control questions and other city services, transferring them to a live dispatcher whenever it can't confidently answer a question. Axios reported its own review found the system's responses were inconsistent.
Richmond disclosed its goal of handling 50% to 60% of nonemergency calls during a council presentation last month, the outlet reported, a presentation city officials requested after Axios's initial July report on the AI assistant. The system is aiming for an interim benchmark of at least 25% of calls handled by January 1, 2027. City officials have not detailed how the system would handle a larger share of calls or whether reaching that goal would cost more money.
Officials Eye Upgrades, But Funding Is Uncertain
Jackie Crotts, deputy technology director for Richmond's emergency communications department, told council members he wants the AI to be able to hold actual conversations with callers rather than simply routing them. The city is working with Amazon Connect to determine what changes are needed to get closer to its target, and hopes to eventually pull information from more data sources to improve the assistant's answers.
Per Axios's report, other AI systems cost more than what Richmond currently uses, and any replacement would depend on available funding — a caveat attributed to Taylor Fuqua in the outlet's reporting. If the current system falls short of its goals, the city says it will look for other options, though no specific contingency plan has been detailed. Richmond's AI assistant has cost more than $52,000 to date, Axios reported.
Council Member Flags Caller Confusion
City Council member Reva Trammell said at last month's meeting that residents may not know they are speaking with AI when they call the nonemergency line, describing confusion among constituents who reached out to her office. Her concerns echo a broader statewide conversation: in October, Virginia's Joint Commission on Technology and Science recommended legislation requiring AI chatbots to explicitly disclose their non-human nature and build in emergency crisis protocols, according to WFXR News.
The push for automation reflects pressure that's been building inside Richmond's call center for years. The department reported a staffing deficit of 30 operators in early 2023 despite a 15% salary increase for dispatchers, according to FFXnow, which described Richmond's 911 agency as Virginia's second-largest center. Those shortages have coincided with other structural changes: Richmond centralized all emergency medical dispatching within its Department of Emergency Communications in July 2024, reclaiming call-routing duties previously handled by the Richmond Ambulance Authority in a move meant to shave 60 seconds off call processing times, per The Richmonder.
Richmond Isn't Alone in Turning to AI
Richmond's experiment fits into a wider regional pattern. In neighboring Virginia Beach, a similar Amazon Connect AI system processed 237,207 nonemergency calls between April and November 2024, transferring 40.6% directly to telecommunicators and 4.4% to 311, according to the City of Virginia Beach. Norfolk announced plans in September 2024 to adopt the same technology while managing 28 dispatcher vacancies in its E-911 division, per the City of Norfolk. Fairfax County, which runs Virginia's largest 911 center, has deployed its own AI-driven triage tool on a nonemergency line that fields more annual traffic than its emergency line, according to the Fairfax County Government.
Whether Richmond's system can close the gap between its current performance and its January target remains an open question the city itself has not yet answered. For now, the AI assistant continues fielding a small slice of the roughly 111,000 nonemergency calls it's designed to triage, while most still land in the hands of the same dispatchers it was built to relieve.
