Aurelian shifted from automating hair salon appointments to developing an AI voice assistant that handles non-emergency 911 calls after founder Max Keenan learned about a 45-minute hold experienced by a salon owner. Non-emergency lines are often staffed by the same personnel who answer 911 calls and suffer from understaffing and high turnover. The AI routes life-threatening emergencies to human dispatchers while automating noise complaints, stolen wallets, and parking violations. The assistant launched in May 2024, is deployed in multiple U.S. jurisdictions, saves dispatchers roughly three hours daily, automated 74% of calls, and secured $14 million in Series A funding.
A new AI startup pivoted from automating appointment bookings for hair salons to building an AI voice assistant that handles non-emergency calls for 911 call centers - and it just raised a $14 million Series A for its new focus on Wednesday. Max Keenan, the founder of Y Combinator-backed startup Aurelian, decided to pivot the company in response to a call from one of his clients, reports TechCrunch. The client, a hair salon owner, had a problem with a school's carpool lane blocking the salon's parking lot.
The startup's AI technology knows when to detect life-threatening emergencies and send those calls directly to human dispatchers. Aurelian launched its AI assistant in May 2024 and has since deployed it at 911 call centers in Snohomish County, Washington, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in addition to about a dozen other locations. According to Aurelian's website, the AI assistant has saved each 911 dispatcher three hours every day on non-emergency calls, and automated 74% of calls without dispatcher intervention.
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