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Despite strong public willingness to share sensitive personal data during emergencies, many Australians and New Zealanders doubt that emergency services are equipped to receive and use it effectively, according to a new study.
A recently published report gathered views and expectations from more than 2,500 people aged 14 and above in ANZ on emergency services and their call handling functions.
The study was commissioned by Motorola Solutions, a provider of a range of emergency service technologies, including for critical communications, dispatch, and video security and analytics.
FINDINGS
The study found that respondents are willing to share exact location data (86%), information on medical conditions and allergies (75%), and wearable health data (54%), though they had "lower expectations that those agencies would actually be capable of receiving that data and using it to improve their response to emergencies."
It also found that 78% of respondents were unaware that AI is already being used or developed in emergency call handling, though those who were aware were "almost three times more likely to trust it." Over half expressed support for specific AI use cases, including keyword detection, automated urgency ranking, live video threat detection, and real-time foreign language translation.
The report highlighted that more than eight in 10 expect emergency responders to arrive within 15 minutes, including over half who expect arrival within 10 minutes.
It also identified a generational divide in how people prefer to contact emergency services: older groups (over age 60) prefer traditional voice calls; Gen X and Millennials (ages 30s-50s) favour a hybrid of voice and digital channels; and Gen Zs (ages 14-28) expect visual, application-based instant communication.
The survey further revealed reasons respondents hesitate to call in emergencies: it's either they are unsure whether their situation qualifies as an emergency, or they are worried about wasting emergency responders' time. Poor mobile phone coverage, particularly in rural areas, was also cited as a barrier to calling emergency services.
WHY IT MATTERS
As disasters become more frequent and severe across the region, public safety agencies have been seeking and planning to modernise their emergency call handling capabilities, including the deployment of computer-aided dispatch solutions. Disasters, for example, already cost Australia about A$2.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in the first half of 2025, based on Treasury estimates.
"The Triple Zero and 111 hotlines have provided a lifeline for the public in times of crisis for more than 60 years, but the need to modernise emergency call handling technology has never been greater," Craig Anderson, executive chair of the National Emergency Communications Working Group – ANZ, was quoted as saying in a media release.
"Investing in new emergency call handling technology can help to close the gap between public expectations and the capabilities of emergency services to implement data-driven responses, while fostering greater trust and confidence in public safety overall," Motorola said.
THE LARGER TREND
Over the years, Australian states have expanded their virtual emergency or urgent care services to more patient cohorts and areas. In Victoria, where the first virtual ED in the country was launched in 2020, the concept is now being extended to specialist care following the recent launch of the telestroke inpatient model – also a country first.
In New Zealand, AI scribes are currently being deployed across public EDs following a pilot that proved its effectiveness in reducing admin time for emergency clinicians. Earlier in July, the government launched the 24/7 online GP service, another initiative to arrest the overcrowding in public EDs.
