AI weighs in on its own potential in fire and EMS

Artificial Intelligence AI weighs in on its own potential in fire and EMS How AI will reshape the future of fire‑EMS operations, dispatch and governance, according to the ChatGPT February 18, 2026 11:27 AM • FireRescue1 Contributors Image/AI By Dr. Randall Hanifen“How will AI transform the fire-EMS service over the next five years?” Asking ChatGPT a question about its own technology provides some eye-opening answers.Here’s a snapshot: It should come as no surprise that AI will affect many aspects of our work, but how will funding and human interaction affect the pace of change? That’s what we’ll explore here.| MORE: When the machine thinks for us But first, AI would not be the people-pleaser it is if it did not suggest completing another task — in this case, developing a five-year AI transformation plan outlining the plan year, area of focus and key outcomes.Here’s what it offered: Let’s consider how this might play out in the areas of governance, dispatch and operations.Building effective AI policy and governanceAfter sitting through an AI readiness course last year, I began to recognize the importance of AI governance, especially as it relates to government operations, specifically fire and EMS. While the typical user just adds prompts to the AI platform, many fire and EMS managers pay for more advanced solutions because they have access to more sensitive information, including medical data protected under federal privacy laws.Because AI uses information fed into the sys...