TL;DR

Bobbi, the online AI assistant that Thames Valley Police and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight force run together, is a finalist in this year’s NPCC Innovation and Digital Awards, the Hampshire force announced on 21 October. The forces say it has now handled more than 10,000 conversations with the public and settled more than 75% of enquiries without a human stepping in.

What the forces report

Bobbi was developed with Salesforce and Humberside Police and is run by the two forces through their Joint Operations Unit. The forces describe it as the first public-facing agentic AI deployed in UK policing. It lets people ask questions and get help in ordinary language online, and hands over to trained contact handlers when an enquiry needs a person.

Before launch, the forces say, the system was tested against more than 1,500 questions, plus 1,200 live conversations involving 200 participants. Its purpose is to take pressure off the 101 non-emergency line and free contact handlers for complex and higher-risk incidents.

Clare Knibbs, a chief superintendent, said the aim had been to make it “easier for people to access information and support” while letting contact teams focus “on the most urgent and complex incidents”.

How the numbers compare

In July, the Oxford Mail reported that Bobbi was handling about 200 conversations a day for Thames Valley Police, with about 45% fully resolved without staff involvement, as we reported then. The new figure of more than 75% is much higher, though the two are not like for like: the July number covered Thames Valley, while the latest release appears to cover both forces since Bobbi went live.

We have also covered Bobbi’s arrival at Merseyside Police and South Yorkshire Police.

Looking forward

The release does not say how a resolved enquiry is defined, or what share of conversations were handed to staff, so the 75% figure is hard to judge on its own. In our view, those definitions matter more than the award: if Bobbi is to be judged across forces, a shared, published measure of resolution and escalation would let the public and police leaders see whether the assistant is actually reducing pressure on 101 or simply answering questions people would otherwise have looked up online.