Q&A: The Role of AI When Every Second Counts

When someone reports a gas leak, calls an urgent healthcare line or loses power in a storm, the technology behind that conversation cannot fail.

Martin Taylor, Co-Founder & Deputy CEO at Content Guru explores how AI is supporting communications in critical national infrastructure, and how the standards set by those services benefit customer experience leaders in every sector.

What Makes Communications in Critical National Infrastructure Different From Other Customer Service?

Most people who contact emergency services, healthcare or utility providers need help in the moment. This places three non-negotiable demands on the technology behind the conversation.

First, the tech has to be ‘always on’. Critical services never close, so resilience, redundancy and change management must be built in from the start.

Second, it has to scale on demand, because a storm, a heatwave or a major incident will multiply contact volumes alarmingly within minutes.

Third, it must be secure and sovereignty-aware, because urgent conversations often involve sensitive personal information that needs to be protected end-to-end.

Given the Stakes, Should AI Be Handling These Conversations At All?

Not on its own. At its heart, a critical communication connects a person in need with another person who can coordinate a response.

When an individual is reaching out about something complex, emotional or urgent, handing them off to an AI agent simply isn’t appropriate.

That doesn’t mean AI has no role. Its job is to get people to the right help as quickly as possible, and to support the people providing that help, before, during and after the interaction.

What Does That Look Like In Practice?

Triage at the top of the call is a good example.

NHS London’s 111 urgent care service uses AI natural language processing in conjunction with a specially-developed, clinically-certified AI Small Language Model to place callers directly into the most appropriate care pathway for their needs.

This can mean self-help and specialized digital triage engines, in addition to the traditional health advisor route. The urgent care line receives a wide range of enquiries, some needing immediate attention and others less time-sensitive.

AI helps 99% of patients reach the right support straight away, alongside creating the equivalent of more than 60 full-time health advisor call handler positions and generating millions of pounds of savings every month through re-directed channels of care.

Additionally, AI is also proving valuable during the call itself. It can pick up key information as a conversation unfolds and guide the handler on the most appropriate next steps.

And it will happily take on the admin too, through real-time transcription and summarization, so call handlers can focus fully on the person they are speaking with.

After the call, AI is there to help make providers in regulated sectors fully accountable and compliant, through specialized auditing and quality management tailored to each service’s stakeholder demands.

Where Do Connected Devices Fit In?

The number of connected Internet of Things devices is forecast to reach at least 39 billion by 2030, with some sources envisaging as many as 500 billion.

These ‘digital customers’ are already acting on behalf of both people and organizations, and they allow service providers to communicate proactively with the public rather than waiting for the phone to ring.

For example, a smart meter alerting an energy supplier to an outage, or a health sensor flagging a connected patient’s heart rate anomaly, when coupled to a dynamic Customer Data Platform, mean new information can be acted on immediately.

That means people receive personalised updates about what affects them, while organizations can spot trends and forecast demand against resources more accurately.

As agentic AI matures, digital customers will increasingly communicate with AI agents directly, so that resolutions can begin quickly, with humans supervising.

What Can CX Leaders Outside Critical Infrastructure Take From This?

Customers of every type face their own critical moments every day.

A lost bank card, a missed flight or a parcel that never arrives all feel subjectively very urgent to an individual in the moment.

The same principles apply and the lesson is to understand what really matters to people when they reach out at a difficult moment.

Therefore, brands must build communications on foundations that will not fail or be compromised, using AI to get individuals in need to the right help faster.

With that in mind, there is more scope for the use of AI in non-critical scenarios, especially if it can resolve issues quicker, but the human connection will remain an essential part of the mix for the foreseeable future.

For now, AI sits behind the critical moments, rather than being responsible for them: making every connection faster, better informed and more effective.

Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Reviewed by: Megan Jones