Health crises and natural disasters are the biggest challenges to humankind. Research by Aon plc estimates that in 2019, global economic losses due to natural disasters amounted to $73 billion, and research by ADB reveals that losses due to the latest crisis, the COVID-19 outbreak, are estimated to be $4.1 trillion globally.  

To improve disaster management practices, federal agencies around the globe have been investing in AI and machine learning technology to predict crises and execute response plans to reduce losses (infrastructure and people). A big role for this technology is to keep communities informed. AI-powered chatbots can be a great tool for federal, state and local agencies to reduce the impact of a crisis.

Challenges of Disaster Management

The occurrence of natural disasters is inevitable. All we can do is reduce the impact of the disasters with preventive measures. In most cases, the impact of these disasters is due to a lack of response teams to guide people on life-saving measures and information. People start to get unauthorized information sourced from rumors when not informed properly.

During a crisis, federal agencies and response teams are pressured to provide concise and updated information in real-time and the number of queries across the public sector skyrockets, which makes it nearly impossible to deliver accurate information to the masses quickly and effectively. Employing a proportionate number of staff to solve public queries is not economically feasible A human employee can only handle a few inquiries at a time. 

Key challenges in handling natural disasters:

• Ensure coordination among response teams
• Provide uninterrupted communication among response groups
• Delivery real-time updates and actions
• Offer 24/7 ability to answer the public's questions
• Record incidents and route action plans to respective response teams

How AI Chatbots Enable Effective Disaster Management

Chatbots, with the ability to interact in natural language at any given time, can handle many requests and respond quickly with updates in a constantly changing emergency situation. The versatility of chatbot applications allow for use on a desktop app, web app, mobile app or integration to social platforms.

The AI capabilities enable government agencies to gather data from multiple sources, organize information according to functional needs, and distribute timely information to the public on a regular basis.

Some key benefits of disaster management chatbots:

• Access government or response teams' information with greater transparency
• Access information faster, avoiding communication and information gaps
• Help governments gather analytics of how many people are being helped and their safety status, as chatbots voluntarily get in touch with users who interacted
• Resolve critical requests quickly without waiting for a human agent
• Offer agility to responsiveness by bringing disaster management data together
• Utilize push notifications to send real-time updates and procedures
• AI-powered chatbots study behavior and can take action based on an interaction, like calling emergency services or response teams

V-Soft's Free Disaster Chatbot For Public Agencies

V-Soft has partnered with AI Innovation Consortium (AIIC) to develop an AI-powered chatbot that can provide all the benefits listed in this article. The chatbot is free for local, state and federal governments and municipalities. For more information about the disaster support chatbot, click here.

If you'd like to add this free chatbot to your disaster response  strategy, please contact the chatbot experts at the AIIC, info@aiinnovationconsortium.org.