9-1-1, what is your emergency? Human-centered artificial intelligence, language access and health policy

Emergency medical dispatch (EMD) is a critical yet understudied entry point into the US healthcare system. Given the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, we examine 9-1-1 telecommunicators' perspectives on AI integration in EMD.

We conducted a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses from a cross-sectional electronic survey of 9-1-1 telecommunicators who primarily manage emergency medical calls at three 9-1-1 call centers in California between February and April 2026.

Eight themes emerged from the study: (1) 9-1-1 telecommunicators generally viewed human-centered AI as a tool to supplement, rather than replace human expertise; (2) the importance of maintaining human connection and empathy; (3) concerns related to liability, accountability, and data security; (4) the need to differentiate between emergency and non-emergency calls; (5) 9-1-1 caller location identification; (6) 9-1-1 caller language identification; 7) delays in connecting with interpreters; and (8) AI performance under "less-than-ideal" conditions.

These findings highlight the importance of human-centered, equity-focused approaches to AI integration in EMD, including proactive policy development, implementation, and evaluation.