Motorola Solutions Highlights AI-Powered Public Safety Growth at Conference

Motorola Solutions NYSE: MSI is seeing continued strength in state and local public-safety budgets and good traction on the federal side, according to Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Mahesh Saptharishi.

Speaking with Piper Sandler’s Jim Fish, Saptharishi said the company’s public-safety products are generally viewed as essential purchases rather than discretionary spending. “Everything that we provide is a need to have more than a nice to have,” he said, adding that this gives Motorola Solutions prioritization within customer budget frameworks.

AI Strategy Centers on Embedded Workflows

Saptharishi said Motorola Solutions has been applying machine learning and artificial intelligence for years, including through Avigilon, the video-security business it acquired. The company’s approach has been to build AI capabilities directly into core workflows rather than offer them as separate tools, he said.

For example, the company’s VESTA NXT 911 platform includes native AI features for real-time transcription, language translation, form completion and incident summaries. Those summaries can be sent to APX NEXT devices used by responders in the field, according to Saptharishi.

He said all 911 orders received during the past few quarters included the company’s AI capabilities. Customers have selected the “assist” tier, the highest tier of the offering, contributing to higher average selling prices across the company’s workflow applications, he said.

Motorola Solutions is also combining audio and video data to help officers create more complete incident narratives. Saptharishi said body-worn cameras may not capture conversations heard through an officer’s radio earpiece. By integrating body-camera audio, land mobile radio audio and relevant 911 call audio, the company aims to help agencies generate more accurate reports and identify gaps in incident timelines.

D-Series Refresh Targets Cost and Coverage Benefits

The company is in the early stages of refreshing public-safety communications infrastructure with its D-Series platform. Saptharishi said the updated core virtualizes capabilities that previously relied on dedicated hardware, potentially reducing the required physical footprint by 80% and energy costs by as much as 90%.

At the base-station level, the D-Series introduces sectorized antennas designed to tailor coverage to customer requirements instead of broadcasting uniformly in all directions. Saptharishi said the combination could improve customers’ total cost of ownership.

He cited St. Louis as a recent substantial D-Series win and said the pipeline is strong, while noting that infrastructure refreshes will occur over an extended period because customers replace systems gradually. Such infrastructure agreements can span multiple years or, in some cases, decades, he said.

LMR Remains Central to Resilient Communications

Addressing whether cellular networks could eventually replace land mobile radio, or LMR, Saptharishi said public-safety agencies prioritize coverage and resilience. He said cellular networks can face coverage limitations in basements, urban canyons and other difficult locations, while a failure at a cell tower can interrupt communications for users relying on that site.

By comparison, he said, LMR networks are private and dedicated to a specific public-safety customer. If a central network or site fails, radios can still communicate at the site level or directly between devices through a direct mode feature.

Rather than positioning LMR, LTE and low-Earth-orbit satellite connectivity as competing technologies, Saptharishi described them as complementary. Motorola Solutions’ SmartConnect application can select an available network in the background based on the communication requirement, he said. D-Series sites also support LEO satellite backhaul.

Satellite connectivity currently has more limited bandwidth and quality-of-service capabilities for direct device voice communications, Saptharishi said. He said it is more suited today for messaging, telemetry and location data, while its role in base stations can be as a backup to wired backhaul.

Privacy Controls and Drone Portfolio

Saptharishi said Motorola Solutions evaluates the potential benefits, risks and mitigations of AI and data-driven products through a cross-functional Technology Advisory Committee. He said public-safety customers retain ownership of their data and that the company uses a “zero trust” sharing philosophy, meaning customer data is not automatically shared.

The company provides policy-level controls, audit logs, transparency portals and training intended to help customers use technologies responsibly, he said. For investigations, customers can require users to enter case numbers and reasons for conducting searches, creating records that can be reviewed by supervisors.

On drones, Saptharishi distinguished among the company’s Silvus, D-Fend and BRINC-related efforts. Silvus serves defense applications involving communications for drones and autonomous systems in environments where communications could be jammed or intercepted, he said.

D-Fend focuses on public safety and critical infrastructure, offering drone detection and mitigation capabilities. Saptharishi said its approach is designed to take control of a drone and land it safely rather than destroy it or broadly jam communications. He said 11 of 12 FIFA-hosting stadiums use D-Fend for detection and mitigation.

Motorola Solutions also has a strategic alliance with BRINC and is its exclusive public-safety channel in North America. Saptharishi said the company sees potential for drones used as first responders to evolve beyond providing video at an incident scene to delivering items such as flotation devices, defibrillators or NARCAN.

In video security, the company recently introduced Avigilon Extend, which brings together its cloud-based Alta platform and on-premises Unity offering. Saptharishi said the combined approach is intended to give customers flexibility to use cloud, on-premises or hybrid deployments while incorporating existing cameras and infrastructure.

About Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI)

Motorola Solutions, Inc develops mission-critical communications and technology solutions for public safety organizations, government agencies and commercial enterprises. Its offerings include land mobile radio systems, broadband communications, command-center software, computer-aided dispatch, records management, evidence management and emergency call-handling technologies.

The company also provides video security and access-control solutions, including body-worn cameras, in-car video systems, fixed video surveillance and related analytics.

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