Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t coming to the fire service. It’s already here.
You may still be asking whether AI is truly “intelligent” or just another tech trend. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that AI can process more data, more variables, and more response scenarios than any project team could—and it’s beginning to influence decisions that affect how your department operates now and in the future.
We can already see the use of AI in fire departments across the nation. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is using AI to anticipate wildfire behavior and improve response. The Chicago Fire Department is using AI to expand public education and communications. Across the fire service, AI is reshaping how departments view risk, deployment, training, and community engagement.
Now it’s moving into something even more tangible: designing your next fire station.
At the Station Design Conference this May, one of last year’s most talked-about sessions returns, "AI in Design: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Fire Station Design". Architects Lynn Reda and Keith Driscoll of Little Diversified Architectural Consulting are back with updated examples of how AI is being used in real-world fire and public safety projects.
If you’re planning a new station—or even thinking about it—you should learn how AI can help.
AI is not about replacing architects, chiefs or project managers. It’s about providing better information earlier in the process. Site selection, station layout, apparatus bay flow, and building performance can all be evaluated using real data instead of expectations. AI can model response times, test design options, and analyze operational needs in ways that would have taken weeks, or never happened at all, just a few years ago.
Remember, you’re making decisions that will impact your fire department for the next 50 to 75 years. There's another presentation on that topic, "How to Afford a 75-Year Facility Without Busting the Budget" with Ken Newell.
Can AI help you choose a better site? Design a more efficient apparatus bay? Reduce change orders during construction? Improve long-term operating costs? Those are great questions for the Station Design Conference presenters.
It also brings something the fire service often struggles with on capital projects—continuity. Projects stretch over years. Chiefs retire. Staffs change. Priorities shift. AI can help capture and organize data so critical information doesn’t get lost along the way.
But wait, let’s be clear, AI is not the decision-maker in this process. The department’s project director and team, working with the architects, advance the project's design and bring it to completion.
As Reda points out, “AI is an accelerator and an assistant, not a replacement.” Experience still matters. Judgment still matters. The best results come when technology supports, not replaces the people at the table.
That balance is where departments need to focus. AI can generate options. It can highlight patterns. It can flag potential issues. But it still takes fire service leadership to ask the right questions and make the right calls.
And that’s really the point.
AI isn’t going to design your next fire station for you, but it will influence the options you’re given—and the quality of the decisions you make.
So, whether you’re a large metro department or a small combination agency, the question isn’t whether AI applies to your fire, training or other project. It does.
The question is whether you understand how to use it before your next project begins.
This Station Design Conference session is a good place to start.
