Blog: Bobbi opens a new route to support in South Yorkshire

Bobbi has officially arrived in South Yorkshire. This October, South Yorkshire Police launched Bobbi, a new 24/7 agentic solution designed to help around 1.4 million people access policing information and support online. Infomentum has been proud to work alongside the force to deploy Bobbi and bring the new service to life, marking an exciting milestone for everyone involved.

More than 1,000 calls reach the force’s 101 service every day, covering a huge range of needs. Alongside situations requiring direct support are people looking for advice, trying to work out which organisation can help or asking questions that can be answered with the right information. Bobbi creates a digital starting point for those enquiries, expanding choice for the public while helping contact teams use their time and expertise effectively.

Powered by Salesforce’s Agentforce and grounded in information provided and approved by South Yorkshire Police, Bobbi understands questions asked in everyday language and provides guidance around the clock. And importantly, digital support is only one part of the picture. If someone needs, or simply prefers, to speak to a person, that option remains firmly in place. It’s a simple idea with a big opportunity behind it: help more people find the right information, at the right time, in the right place.

Making the digital front door work harder

Someone might have a question late at night. They might be unsure whether the police are the right organisation to contact. Or they may simply want an answer without needing to make a call.

Now, they can ask Bobbi.

Of course, not every interaction belongs online. Bobbi isn’t a route for reporting a crime or an alternative to 999, and when an enquiry needs a person, or someone asks to speak to one, the conversation can move across to South Yorkshire Police’s 24/7 Digital Desk.

Getting that balance right has been an important part of bringing Bobbi to South Yorkshire. Working closely with the force, our team helped shape how Bobbi responds, when an interaction should move to the Digital Desk and how that handover works in practice. AI can take on the repeatable interactions it handles well, while people remain at the heart of the conversations that call for empathy, experience and judgement.

“Working with Infomentum on this journey to Bobbi implementation has been great.  Their Project Managers and SMEs have been extremely helpful and made themselves available whenever we needed their support.  Shaha and Charlie’s support has been invaluable and I would welcome the opportunity to work with them again.” - Gary Slatter, Communications Manager at South Yorkshire Police

One more Bobbi. A lot more to build from.

South Yorkshire joins a growing Bobbi community across UK policing, with the assistant already supporting public contact across a number of other forces.

And there’s real momentum behind it. Across existing deployments, Bobbi is already handling around 500 conversations every day, with approximately 76% resolved digitally.

Each launch adds something new to that collective experience. What people ask. Where digital support works well. When someone needs to step in. For South Yorkshire, we’ve been able to bring those lessons into the programme while shaping Bobbi around the force’s own information, policies and ways of working.

The technology might be shared, but every Bobbi has a force and a community of its own.

A new chapter for public contact

South Yorkshire Police is currently handling around 40 conversations a day through Bobbi, which they expect to increase as the service becomes further embedded. As adoption builds, those interactions will also give the force an even richer picture of what its communities are asking and help shape how the service develops.

And our work together goes beyond the digital front door. We’re also helping South Yorkshire Police improve the experience after someone reports a crime through Victim Journey, bringing better digital contact to another important part of the public experience.

For now, there’s plenty to celebrate. Bobbi is live, South Yorkshire has joined a growing community of forces exploring a new approach to public contact, and 1.4 million people now have another way to find the information they need.

Another force. Another Bobbi. And another exciting step forward for digital public contact!

Could Bobbi support public contact in your force? Get in touch with Infomentum to see how Bobbi could work for you and your organisation.