FirstRing: building a model-agnostic crisis communication platform

When a crisis hits, communication teams have minutes, not hours. The wrong tone, a delayed statement, or a missing Q&A can escalate an incident into a reputational disaster. FirstRing is the AI-powered crisis communication platform we built together with the domain experts at Compaijen C&C. It generates a complete communication strategy, first statement, Q&As, and web content within one minute.

Built with domain experts, not for them

FirstRing is not a generic AI tool with a crisis communication skin. It was designed from the ground up in close collaboration with Compaijen C&C, a team of seasoned crisis communication professionals with decades of experience in public sector crises, corporate incidents, and international operations.

This partnership shaped every decision. The output structure follows established crisis communication frameworks like GRIP. The language defaults to B1 level for clarity under pressure. The tone is empathetic and transparent by design, not because we trained a prompt, but because the domain experts defined what good crisis communication looks like and we engineered the system to deliver it consistently.

Model-agnostic by design

FirstRing does not depend on a single AI provider. The platform automatically selects the best performing model for each task, choosing between OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and Mistral. If one provider is slow or unavailable, the system seamlessly switches to another.

This is not just a technical feature. It is a strategic decision. Crisis communication cannot afford downtime. When an API goes down at 2 AM during an active crisis, your communication tool needs to keep working. Model-agnostic architecture eliminates single points of failure.

For European clients who require data sovereignty, FirstRing can run entirely on Mistral, hosted on European servers. No data leaves the EU. No dependency on American providers. Full GDPR compliance without sacrificing capability.

What FirstRing generates

Within one minute of providing context about the crisis, teams receive:

No prompts, no AI knowledge required

Crisis teams should not need to learn prompt engineering. FirstRing has all the knowledge, templates, and protocols built in. Users provide the context of the crisis: what happened, who is affected, what is known. The system does the rest.

This design choice came directly from working with crisis communication professionals. During a crisis, cognitive load is already maximal. The tool must reduce complexity, not add it.

Ethical and EU-compliant

All output follows principles of openness, transparency, and human-centeredness. FirstRing does not generate inflated or sensational text. It produces honest communication that builds trust, which is exactly what crisis situations demand.

The platform complies with the EU AI Act and can run on European models and infrastructure. Customer data is never used for model training.

Human and machine in harmony

The FirstRing interface was designed with one guiding principle: human and machine should work together in harmony, especially when it matters most. During a crisis, the AI generates the first draft, the strategy, the Q&As. But the human stays in control. Every output can be reviewed, edited, and approved before it goes out.

This is not AI replacing the crisis communicator. It is AI giving the crisis communicator superpowers. The machine handles speed and completeness. The human brings judgment, empathy, and context that no model can replicate. Together, they produce better communication faster than either could alone.

Small team, big impact

FirstRing is already used by hospitals, grid operators, municipalities, emergency response regions, companies, and NGOs. Experience shows it works particularly well for smaller organizations without large communication teams. With FirstRing, a team of two or three can deliver the communication quality that previously required a full crisis staff.