AI and public services · Chile · J-PAL PAIE
AI Agents for School Enrollment
From an admission offer to a place in school
A randomized evaluation comparing usual outreach, reminders and interactive AI assistance for families completing school enrollment.
- Where
- Chile · Santiago-area public schools
- Work
- Three-arm randomized evaluation
- Stage
- Funded randomized evaluation
- My role
- Co-principal investigator with Sebastián Otero
The project
An offer is not the end of the enrollment process
After receiving a place, a family may still face passwords, documents and several steps in an enrollment portal. The study asks whether a reminder is enough, or whether families benefit from support that can respond to the problem they encounter.
The design compares standard outreach with additional reminders and with conversational AI delivered through WhatsApp and voice. It focuses on the completion of enrollment after an offer, rather than selecting schools on a family's behalf.
What the work involves
Usual outreach
Observe enrollment under the existing email-notification process.
Additional reminders
Test WhatsApp reminders and recorded calls that make the next step more salient.
Interactive assistance
Test conversational voice and WhatsApp support that can identify and guide the remaining steps.
Research & implementation
A funded evaluation, with results still to come
J-PAL lists this as a Winter 2026 full project, studying roughly 1,000 admission offers. The PAIE award notice is dated May 31, 2026. The study tests whether reminders address the main barrier, or whether families need interactive help with procedural complexity.