Market outlook: Top network tech that'll benefit public authorities

In an era defined by escalating geopolitical tensions, rising occurrences of natural disasters, and rapid technological advancements, governments around the world are confronting an increasingly complex web of challenges. As we move through 2025, the convergence of government technology (GovTech) and artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be pivotal—not only in fostering enhanced international cooperation but also in providing effective solutions for action on the ground. 

AI for Disaster Mitigation Planning

In the coming years, AI will empower civil protection departments to identify risks and develop effective disaster mitigation strategies with unprecedented precision. Key applications include automated triggered actions in emergencies, assisted alert creation, and contextual evacuation plans that consider routes and population density. Let's take an example of large-scale evacuations in the case of an industrial accident or river flooding: An AI assistant can help authorities send tailored messages to those near the incident site, while reassuring those further away, keep track of message recipients enabling responders to send relevant updates as the crisis evolves, even without access to individual phone numbers. It can also generate real-time density maps, allowing firefighters and other emergency personnel to visualize evacuation progress, identify bottlenecks, and adjust their strategies accordingly. By leveraging IoT sensors and advanced analytics, it literally transforms situational awareness and operational efficiency, and significantly enhances overall crisis management capabilities.

Enhanced Spatial Precision for Emergency Services

5G networks are revolutionizing location-based services with unprecedented spatial precision, crucial for meeting public safety regulatory requirements. For example, article 109 EECC mandates both network-based and more accurate handset-derived location information to combine Advanced Mobile Location (AML) technology with 5G network improved precision and lead to significantly more accurate emergency responses, potentially saving more lives. AML uses GNSS like Galileo to pinpoint a caller's location with high accuracy. When fully operational, Galileo aims to reach centimeter or decimeter-level accuracy without the need for costly infrastructure. Such enhanced precision will also be extremely useful to send geotargeted emergency warnings when a disaster arises, especially when the network infrastructure is damaged or down.

AI-Driven Metadata Analysis in Law Enforcement

As encrypted communications pose public safety and national security challenges, artificial intelligence has already started to transform the day-to-day practices of law enforcement, national security agencies, ministries of justice, and home affairs departments. Here, we focus on the AI impact on metadata and digital footprint analysis. This technology enables contextual searching for critical and exclusive insights, pattern recognition in crime investigations, border security, and trafficking cases, and cross-referencing of structured and unstructured data. AI-metadata analysis is extremely useful for alibi checks, location determination of suspects, and analysis of possible cross-references. As the investigation advances, these application shortlists targets’ unique identifiers. The deanonymization of targets’ profiles is only implemented with judicial authorization, ensuring a balance between effective law enforcement and privacy protection. AI assistants further enhance this process by surfacing potential insights that might otherwise be overlooked, such as subtle patterns or connections hidden within vast datasets. Evidence querying using large language models allows investigators to ask questions about case data and rapidly narrow down key results. 

These trends represent exciting opportunities for innovation in public safety and telecommunications, promising to enhance emergency response times, improve disaster management, and bolster law enforcement capabilities. As technology continues to evolve, it's crucial for public authorities to stay informed and adapt their strategies to leverage these advancements effectively.