AI Saving Lives with Maitris | Peter Stanley, forty-year veteran Firefighter

This week we speak to a training company in the UK using on-platform, custom AI assistants to help train senior incident commanders. But first, here’s a couple of AI developments this week:

For transparency, Temrel created the Maitris platform from scratch in 2024 for this client. We’re still involved in developing new features—seriously exciting stuff.

​In firefighting, an Incident Commander (IC) is the individual responsible for managing emergency responses, including developing strategies, ensuring firefighter safety, and coordinating resources.

These men and women face harrowing, serious incidents and make literal life-and-death decisions. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted; their training must give them the tools to succeed in dire circumstances.

Imagine, then, a training platform that guides you through complex scenarios and immerses you in realistic roleplays, preparing you for the unpredictable nature of real-life incidents.

Enter Maitris, a groundbreaking platform that leverages AI chat to revolutionise incident commander training and preparation.

Maitris: A New Era in Incident Command Training

Since it was brought to market 18 months ago by UK-based Peter Stanley Training, Maitris has trained over 200 incident commanders, enhancing their skills and preparedness for real-world emergencies. Peter Stanley, a 40+ year veteran of the UK firefighting sector and managing director of the company that bears his name, spoke to Temrel.

At the heart of Maitris lies an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT, meticulously trained on the company’s extensive incident training materials, including the training available on-platform. As such, this isn't just another chatbot; it's a personalized mentor who knows exactly where you are in your training journey.

The Maitris AI Agent is an on-platform collaborator for real-time interaction during the learning phase. Instead of handing out answers, it offers context-specific guidance, nudging you to think critically and deepen your understanding.

Interactive Learning with AI Assistance

This approach ensures that learning is active and engaging, fostering better retention and decision-making skills. It also beats the standard static modules we’ve all completed as part of workplace compliance (“This is how to lift a heavy box”).

This dynamic approach keeps training sessions fresh and aligned with real-world complexities, ensuring you learn and adapt—an essential skill for any incident commander.

Coming Soon: AI-assisted Roleplays

Maitris is set to revolutionize incident command training further by introducing AI-driven roleplays. Maitris envisages delivering simulated crises in which AI agents embody roles like police officers, medical teams, or media personnel. “We’re actively developing the agentic roleplay feature. Early tests are very promising,” says Peter.

This immersive environment will enable users to safely practice decision-making, communication, and leadership skills, building confidence and competence.

It’s a resource-effective way of training. Traditional classroom-based activities require a lot of organisation and opportunity cost. They’re normally only one-shot, too, giving learners limited amounts of meaningful practice.

“We will use this to augment our certification - but not replace the humans in the loop”.

Whilst it'll provide an effective tool for training where there wasn’t one before, final exams will always be done with real people across the table,” states Peter.

Getting more for less

‘We’ve always wanted to deliver more for less cost”, says Peter. “The always-on SaaS platform coupled with the new capabilities offered by AI Agents opens a lot of new doors for this”. Having a 24/7 platform capable of delivering real-time customised training is an incredible prospect.

As with all implementations of AI Agents, they’re also economically feasible, given the reduced cost of agents compared to humans. The automation on offer lowers operational costs and allows trainers to focus on more strategic initiatives.

For example, organizations using AI for employee learning and development have reported a 30% reduction in training costs but with increased training opportunities thanks to AI Agents acting as mentors.

Organizations can create more engaging, efficient, and cost-effective learning experiences by integrating AI chat assistants into training platforms. This technology personalizes the learning journey and ensures that trainees are better prepared for the complexities of their roles.

Temrel created Maitris for Peter Stanley Training as a rapid prototype in three months. Once it got traction, we reinforced the implementation and roadmapped new features.

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