Key points
- Relationships Australia SA is using AI agents to risk-assess clients and trigger safety checks during the five-to-six week wait for an appointment.
- A ‘family DOORS’ agent analyses survey responses against 15 years of data to flag elevated risks and prompt a trained human response within hours or days.
- A second agent, branded ‘Agent Atlas’, produces client summaries so practitioners can start appointments without covering old ground again.
Image credit: Relationships Australia SA.
Relationships Australia SA is using AI agents to risk-assess clients and trigger safety checks, preventing them from “falling through the cracks” while they wait for an appointment.
Former CEO Claire Ralfs told the Salesforce Dreamforce conference that the non-profit organisation sees more than 21,000 clients a year, but that there’s typically a five-to-six week wait for an appointment.
“A lot of us know that when relationships go badly, they could go really badly,” Ralfs said.
“It can be a matter of life and death and the negative impact can last a lifetime for children.
“The struggle for us is knowing that as people reach out, they’re at some of their riskiest [times], and yet it can be five-to-six weeks before we’re able to respond.
“That’s what agents are helping us with.”
The organisation has been using Salesforce’s Nonprofit Cloud for about 10 months, and is using two AI agents, built or configured with assistance from partner AlphaSys.
The first of these is a ‘family DOORS’ agent, where DOORS stands for ‘detection of overall risk screen’.
This is described by the organisation as a “universal holistic screening framework used across all services.”
Once a client makes an appointment, they are immediately sent the DOORS survey, which they can fill out and submit.
“Our DOORS coach analyses risks against the 15 years of data that we have from DOORS to tell us [if the client] has some elevated risks,” Ralfs said.
“[If so], that triggers a trained human response. And we call [them] within a few days, if not if not a few hours after we get that information, and we check that [they’re] actually safe until [their] appointment.”
DOORS coach can also record the interaction and the result.
Another AI agent being used is one specifically associated with the Nonprofit Cloud platform – a “participant management agent” that, according to Salesforce’s marketing, is “designed to support case managers and program staff during client interactions.”
Ralfs said that Relationships Australia SA had taken that agent, configured it and branded it ‘Agent Atlas’.
It essentially produces a client summary that practitioners can use for the formal booked appointment.
“Our practitioner can start straight away with where [the client] is today. [They] don’t have to go back and cover it all again,” Ralfs said.
“Then, our DOORS coach also helps our practitioner document that session and check that we covered off on all of the issues that [the client] comes with.
“That’s the helpful role that agents are playing for us.”
Relationships Australia SA has about 400 staff and runs 25 services, covering family mediation, relationships counselling, men’s behavioural change programs and gambling harms programs.
“The purpose of our services is to strengthen the quality of relationships, to prevent harm and to actually improve the wellbeing for the people who use our services and their families,” Ralfs said.
Ralfs highlighted the important role that DOORS, and now the AI agent, plays in triaging clients as they present for assistance.
The data that we’ve learned from [DOORS] is very sobering. One in two people come dealing with family violence, one in four are struggling with their own unsafe behaviour, and one in 10 need a suicide prevention plan – all of this at the first appointment,” she said.
This, she added, highlighted the importance of the DOORS survey, and of having AI agents detect the most at-risk clients presenting to the organisation.
