Motorola Solutions Innovation, Technology & Agility

What is the unique story that you feel your company has with AI? If you were writing about it, what would the title of your blog be?
My blog would be titled, “Meeting You Where You Are.”

At Motorola Solutions, we understand AI isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Each unique role has a distinct way of processing information and understanding this allows us to shape our solutions to address our customers’ unique needs.

Given the critical nature of public safety, our AI is thoughtfully designed to assist and inform rather than distract. For example, 911 call takers’ priority is to gather essential information quickly and accurately to dispatch the appropriate help. We design AI to help collect this in a simple “who, what, where, when, why and how?” format. On the other hand, officers require in-depth documentation for record-keeping. Our AI is designed to help craft a detailed timeline, leveraging multiple streams of information and arranging it into the same agency template officers use. By implementing familiar design patterns, we establish trust between the user and our technology.

Our goal isn’t to simply inject AI anywhere into our technology; it’s to have AI conform to the human way of taking in information. We have the responsibility to meet you where you are.

What was a monumental moment for your team when it comes to your work with AI?
Motorola Solutions recently launched SVX and Assist, a first-of-its-kind video remote speaker microphone that converges secure voice, video and AI designed for our APX NEXT radio. SVX combines a body camera and radio into a single device and Assist places the power of human-AI collaboration directly into their hands.

Assist can query a license plate or driver’s license and automatically search for associated records or warnings, detect keywords in radio traffic such as “shots fired,” alert nearby officers and command center staff, and act as a live language translator between officer and community member.

Assist also targets some of officers’ most time-consuming work. Our research shows that patrol officers spend 40-60 percent of their time when writing reports entering basic data about people, vehicles and property. By collating data from radio conversations, officer’s location, 911 call information, camera footage and more, Assist augments an officer’s individual perspective. Officers’ time is preserved so they can spend more of it in their communities, confident in their factually grounded reports and evidence.

This launch establishes the path forward for AI in public safety.

AI is a constantly evolving field. Very few people coming into these roles have years of experience to pull from. Explain what continuous learning looks like on your team. How do you learn from one another and collaborate?
AI is more than a science — it’s an art. In the beginning, AI was something we added to our existing technology; it was the sugar we sprinkled into our coffee. But as the field evolved, so has the art form, and now AI has become the medium that we use … the coffee itself, so to speak.

With this shift, it’s imperative we design responsibly. Even with AI automation, we design for our users to maintain control.

Our teams enable this by prototyping our solutions much earlier in the design process. Customer testing is more iterative and our design teams work side by side with engineering and business teams to understand the possibilities. For SVX, we conducted research and usability testing with 32 agencies across 16 states.

This is what I love about Motorola Solutions — creativity is encouraged. I’m never afraid to propose new ideas because our teams are always eager to test them. This inherent positivity and spirit of innovation allows us to push the limits and create magic — in SVX and Assist and across the company.