ThisGen.ai

Cover Block

PUBLIC

Name	ThisGen.ai (ThisGen 911)
Tagline	AI-powered training and performance platform for 911 emergency communications centers.
Headquarters	Chicago, United States
Founded	2024
Stage	Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry	Defense / Govtech
Technology	AI / Machine Learning
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding Label	Seed

Links

PUBLIC

• Website: https://www.thisgen.ai
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thisgen

Executive Summary

PUBLIC

ThisGen.ai is building an AI-powered training platform for 911 dispatchers, a niche but critical application where software can directly address a national shortage of qualified personnel and potentially improve emergency response outcomes. The company, founded in 2024, uses AI-generated voice simulations to create on-demand, realistic call scenarios for trainees, a method that claims to reduce training time by 40% according to the company's own resources [ThisGen.ai resources]. Its early traction is notable, with deployments confirmed in multiple Wisconsin counties and the Orange County Fire Authority, suggesting public safety agencies are willing to adopt the technology [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan 2026], [San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 2026].

The founding team, Zak Randall and Aaron Diestelkamp, bring prior experience from healthcare network AVIA, with Diestelkamp adding technical depth from Accenture and Argonne National Laboratory [RocketReach, retrieved 2026]. The business model is SaaS, targeting government budgets for public safety training, a sector known for long sales cycles but high retention. While the company's seed-stage funding details are not public, its product-market fit appears validated by these early government customers.

Over the next 12-18 months, the key watchpoints will be the expansion of its customer base beyond initial pilot counties, the development of its technology stack relative to its dependency on ElevenLabs for core voice AI, and its ability to convert consideration into contracts, as seen with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department [The News Herald, 2026]. The central investment question is whether this specialized training wedge can scale into a broader performance and hiring platform for emergency communications centers.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product and customer deployments are confirmed by multiple local news reports and partner blogs. Founders' backgrounds are corroborated. The key traction metric (40% training reduction) is a company claim without independent verification, and funding details are not publicly available.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Value
Stage	Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry / Vertical	Defense / Govtech
Technology Type	AI / Machine Learning
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (2)
Funding	Seed

Company Overview

PUBLIC

ThisGen.ai, operating as ThisGen 911, is a Chicago-based software company founded in 2024. The company is legally incorporated as ThisGen, Inc., as noted in its terms of service [ThisGen.ai]. Its formation coincides with a period of increased public and governmental focus on modernizing emergency response infrastructure, positioning it to address a specific, high-stakes training bottleneck within 911 communications centers.

The company's public milestones are tied to customer deployments rather than funding announcements. Its first publicly confirmed implementation began in 2025 with the Orange County Fire Authority [The News Herald, 2026], [San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 2026]. This was followed by a series of county-level adoptions in Wisconsin throughout 2026, including in Outagamie County, Dane County, and the city of Milwaukee, which was reported as the first municipality in the state to use the software [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2026], [Yahoo News, 2026]. A partnership with voice-AI vendor ElevenLabs, announced in April 2025, provides the technological foundation for its core simulation product [ElevenLabs blog, April 2025].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Company details and customer deployments are confirmed by multiple local news reports and a vendor blog. The founding year and entity are from the company's own documents, but no independent state filing or Crunchbase corroboration for incorporation date is available.

Product and Technology

MIXED

The core of ThisGen.ai's offering is a simulation platform that uses generative voice AI to create on-demand training scenarios for emergency dispatchers. The product, as described in company materials, is designed to replace or augment traditional, resource-intensive training methods with a scalable, automated system [LinkedIn, 2024]. Its primary surface is a library of "ultra-realistic" call scenarios covering medical, police, and fire emergencies, which trainees can practice repeatedly with instant, automated quality assurance feedback tied to agency protocols [LinkedIn, 2024].

Beyond the trainee interface, the platform includes a supervisor dashboard for managing users, assigning specific repetitions, and tracking progress over time. Analytics tools are intended to highlight individual and team-wide performance gaps and compliance adherence [LinkedIn, 2024]. The company's broader positioning suggests the system also plays a role in hiring assessments and live performance support, framing it as a connected workforce readiness platform [ThisGen.ai careers].

Technologically, the product's most distinctive component is its reliance on third-party AI-generated voices. ElevenLabs, a text-to-speech vendor, has publicly identified ThisGen.ai as a customer using its technology to create the realistic call simulations [ElevenLabs blog, April 2025]. This indicates a critical dependency on an external API for a core product feature. The company claims this approach reduces dispatcher training time by 40%, though this metric is sourced solely from the company's own resources page and lacks independent verification [ThisGen.ai resources].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product features are consistently described across the company's LinkedIn page and partner blog. The 40% training reduction claim is a company-only metric.

Market Research

MIXED

The market for public safety technology is being reshaped by a convergence of workforce shortages, heightened performance demands, and the maturation of AI tools capable of simulating high-stakes human interaction. ThisGen.ai operates within the niche of 911 dispatcher training, a segment that sits at the intersection of the broader government technology (GovTech) and corporate learning & development (L&D) markets.

Quantifying the total addressable market for AI-powered 911 training specifically is challenging due to a lack of dedicated third-party reports. However, the scale of the underlying public safety infrastructure provides a proxy. There are an estimated 5,800 primary and secondary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) across the United States [National Emergency Number Association]. Each center requires continuous training for dispatchers, a workforce that numbers in the hundreds of thousands and experiences high turnover and burnout. While a formal SAM for training software is not published, the annual budgets allocated to PSAP operations and training grants, such as those from state 911 offices, represent the immediate pool of capital. For a comparable market sizing, the corporate digital learning platform market was valued at over $20 billion globally in 2024 [HolonIQ, 2024], illustrating the economic weight of training technology in a commercial context.

Demand is driven by acute, publicly documented pressures. A national shortage of 911 dispatchers has created a critical need to accelerate training timelines without compromising quality [APCO International, 2025]. Concurrently, there is a push for standardization and measurable compliance in emergency response protocols. ThisGen.ai's cited deployment in Wisconsin was reportedly supported by state grant funding aimed at modernizing PSAP capabilities [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan 2026], indicating that public funding is a tangible tailwind for technology adoption in this sector.

Adjacent and substitute markets influence the opportunity. The primary substitute is the status quo: traditional, mentor-led training using scripted role-play, which is resource-intensive and difficult to scale. Adjacent markets include broader public safety software for computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management, as well as the general AI voice synthesis and simulation market. A key regulatory force is the ongoing NG911 (Next Generation 911) transition across the United States, a multi-year upgrade to digital, IP-based emergency networks. This modernization effort creates a receptive environment for complementary software innovations that promise improved operational efficiency.

Market Segment	Analogous Size / Indicator	Source
U.S. Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs)	~5,800 facilities	[National Emergency Number Association]
Global Corporate Digital Learning Platforms	>$20B (2024)	[HolonIQ, 2024]
Core Demand Driver	National dispatcher shortage & burnout	[APCO International, 2025]

This framing suggests the serviceable market is defined not by a generic software TAM, but by the number of PSAPs under budgetary pressure to solve a specific, painful operational bottleneck with available grant or operational funds. The competitive landscape will be shaped by which vendors can most credibly integrate with existing CAD systems and compliance frameworks.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on analogous reports and industry association data; direct TAM for the niche is not publicly quantified.

Competitive Landscape

MIXED ThisGen.ai enters a public safety training market where the primary alternatives are legacy, manual processes and a small set of specialized software vendors, creating a wedge with AI-generated voice simulations.

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding	Notable Differentiator	Source
ThisGen.ai	AI-powered training & performance platform for 911 dispatchers.	Seed stage.	AI-generated voice simulations for on-demand, scenario-based training with automated feedback.	[LinkedIn company page, 2024]
Prepared	End-to-end emergency response platform with assistive AI for 911 call-taking and dispatch.	Later stage (Series B+).	Integrated, real-time assistive AI for live 911 calls, not just training.	[YouTube, Prepared]

This competitive map can be segmented into three categories. The first is direct software competitors offering solutions for 911 centers, where Prepared is the most prominent. Prepared's focus is on live call-taking assistance, a mission-critical workflow adjacent to but distinct from training. The second segment consists of traditional training vendors and simulation providers, which often rely on pre-recorded audio or live role-play, lacking the scalability and instant feedback of AI-driven systems. The third, and most significant, competitive force is the status quo: in-house training academies and manual processes that dominate the majority of public safety answering points (PSAPs). This reliance on experienced trainers and paper-based scenarios represents the vast, unautomated market ThisGen aims to capture.

ThisGen's current defensible edge rests on its specific product focus and early public sector adoption. The platform's integration of ElevenLabs' voice technology allows for the rapid generation of unlimited, realistic scenarios, a capability not easily replicated by incumbents without similar AI partnerships. Furthermore, the company's documented deployments with municipal and county agencies in Wisconsin and California provide a beachhead of referenceable customers within the notoriously relationship-driven govtech sales cycle. This early-mover advantage in AI-for-training is perishable, however, as it depends on maintaining a technological lead in simulation realism and feedback accuracy, which larger vendors or Prepared itself could develop in-house.

The company's most significant exposure is its adjacency to a well-funded competitor with a broader platform. Prepared's established presence in live 911 operations gives it a natural expansion path into training, potentially bundling simulation tools with its core suite. ThisGen also lacks a visible footprint in the adjacent market for computer-aided dispatch (CAD) or records management systems (RMS), which are often procurement gatekeepers in PSAPs. Without partnerships or integrations into these incumbent systems, the sales motion remains a point solution, vulnerable to being displaced by a suite offering from a larger vendor.

The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on procurement speed and product expansion. If ThisGen can use its early customer wins to secure state-level contracts or grants, accelerating deployment across multiple counties within a region, it could establish a durable regional stronghold. The winner in this case would be ThisGen, solidifying its position as the specialist training platform. Conversely, if Prepared or a CAD vendor launches a credible AI training module and leverages existing enterprise relationships to cross-sell, ThisGen could find itself compressed into a niche. The loser would be ThisGen, facing increased competition for budget and attention from integrated suites before it can achieve sufficient scale.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor Prepared is confirmed; broader competitive mapping is inferred from market structure and limited public vendor lists.

Opportunity

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The opportunity for ThisGen.ai is to become the de facto training and performance management standard for the nation's 911 emergency communications workforce, a role that could command a recurring, high-margin revenue stream from a sticky public safety customer base.

The headline opportunity is to evolve from a training simulation tool into the essential workforce readiness platform for the entire 911 ecosystem. The company's early deployments in multiple counties, including Milwaukee's status as the first municipality in Wisconsin to adopt the software, demonstrate a wedge into a market historically underserved by modern software [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan 2026], [Yahoo News, Jan 2026]. The core premise is that once a county integrates a platform for training, the natural expansion is into hiring assessments, live-call performance support, and compliance analytics, creating a single, indispensable system for managing the entire dispatcher lifecycle. This path from point solution to mission-critical platform is plausible because the initial product directly addresses a severe, well-documented pain point: the lengthy and inconsistent training process for a high-stress, high-turnover profession.

Several concrete growth scenarios could accelerate this path to category leadership.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
State-Wide Mandate	A state public safety office or association adopts ThisGen.ai as a recommended or funded standard for all county ECCs.	A successful, high-profile deployment in a major metropolitan area (e.g., Milwaukee) leads to a formal partnership or grant program.	Public safety technology often standardizes at the state level. The company's traction in Wisconsin, with deployments in Outagamie, Dane, and Milwaukee counties, creates a proof-of-concept cluster that state officials could replicate [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan 2026].
Academy Partnership	The platform becomes the primary curriculum delivery tool for state-certified 911 training academies and community college programs.	A partnership with a major training academy or accreditation body, embedding the software into certification requirements.	The company already markets a dedicated version of its platform to "schools and academies," indicating this is a defined channel [ThisGen.ai resources]. Lock-in at the training source would funnel all new dispatchers into a system they already know.

What compounding looks like is a data and distribution flywheel. Each new county deployment adds more scenario data and performance benchmarks, which can be anonymized and used to improve the AI's realism and feedback accuracy. This creates a product moat: a platform trained on millions of simulated interactions from diverse jurisdictions becomes increasingly difficult to replicate. Furthermore, success in one county often influences neighboring jurisdictions through regional public safety networks, creating a low-friction expansion path. The company's mention by its technology partner, ElevenLabs, as a use case suggests early validation that can attract further partnerships within the govtech stack [ElevenLabs blog, April 2025].

The size of the win can be framed by a comparable scenario. Prepared, a company in the adjacent emergency response software space, provides a reference point. While not a direct competitor in training, Prepared's focus on public safety and AI positions it as a peer in the govtech landscape. If ThisGen.ai successfully becomes the platform for a significant portion of the roughly 5,800 primary and secondary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in the U.S., even at conservative annual contract values, the resulting revenue base would support a venture-scale outcome. A scenario where the company captures 20% of the PSAP market with a platform expanding beyond training could support a valuation in the high hundreds of millions, based on public SaaS multiples applied to a recurring, mission-critical revenue stream. This is a scenario, not a forecast, but it illustrates the magnitude of the prize for the company that standardizes 911 workforce development.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Customer deployments are confirmed by multiple local news reports. The growth scenarios and market size are extrapolated from these confirmed deployments and the structure of the public safety market.

Sources

PUBLIC

1. [ThisGen.ai resources] ThisGen.ai resources | https://www.thisgen.ai/resources

2. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan 2026] AI software now helping to train 911 dispatchers in Milwaukee | https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2026/01/14/ai-software-now-helping-to-train-911-dispatchers-in-milwaukee/88178318007/

3. [San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 2026] San Gabriel Valley Tribune coverage | https://www.sgvtribune.com/

4. [RocketReach, retrieved 2026] Zak Randall Email & Phone Number | ThisGen 911 Co-Founder and CEO Contact Information | https://rocketreach.co/zak-randall-email_242307021

5. [ThisGen.ai] ThisGen.ai website | https://www.thisgen.ai

6. [LinkedIn, 2024] ThisGen 911 LinkedIn Company Page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/thisgen

7. [ThisGen.ai careers] ThisGen.ai careers page | https://www.thisgen.ai/careers

8. [ElevenLabs blog, April 2025] AI voices helping train 911 dispatchers | https://elevenlabs.io/blog/ai-voices-helping-train-911-dispatchers

9. [The News Herald, 2026] The News Herald coverage | https://www.thenewsherald.com/

10. [Yahoo News, Jan 2026] An AI software and voice is now helping train Milwaukee 911 dispatchers | https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ai-software-voice-now-helping-210859682.html

11. [National Emergency Number Association] National Emergency Number Association | https://www.nena.org/

12. [HolonIQ, 2024] HolonIQ market report | https://www.holoniq.com/

13. [APCO International, 2025] APCO International | https://www.apcointl.org/

14. [YouTube, Prepared] Prepared video: AI for the next generation of 911 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHJx1HFKgM