Catalina chatbot answers over 164,900 COVID-19 chats in Ecuador

UNDP's evaluation office found that the Catalina chatbot, set up to unblock Ecuador's COVID-19 hotline, answered over 164,900 chats between May and August 2020.

  • 1 a person

    Citizens could put COVID-19 questions to the chatbot on over 76 government webpages.

  • 1 an organization

    The chatbot answered over 164,900 chats in four months for a government whose hotline was blocked, though no effect on the hotline is measured.

Depth runs from 1, a convenience or time saved, to 5, a life or a livelihood preserved.

Status
Reported benefit.
Evidence

foundstudiedreportedclaimed

An independent evaluation report supports the benefit.

The system’s part
Not isolated. The evaluators call Catalina an artificial intelligence solution and give no technical detail. UNDP describes it in a release as artificial intelligence software that simulates conversation and says that its answers improved with use. A bank of more than 450 questions and answers suggests that much of it may have been scripted, and neither document shows that it learns from data. No comparison of the hotline with and without the chatbot is reported.
Limits
Not yet checked.
Costs and harms
Not yet checked.
Later
Not yet checked.

Download data Cite Suggest a correction

Benefit type
Repetitive Task Automation
System
Catalina COVID-19 chatbot on Government of Ecuador webpages
Made by
1MillionBot (One Million Bot S.L.)
Used by
Government of Ecuador (Ministry of Telecommunications and the Information Society, MINTEL) with UNDP, which led the initiative, and other UN agencies
Where
Ecuador (national government websites)
Stage
In routine use
Date
Kind
Program
Broad benefit
Performing for or Working Directly with the Public, Communicating with People Outside the Organization
Collections
Scrutiny and findings, Cross-border records
Last revised
31 October 2026

Sources

  1. Evaluation report, by authors with no tie to the system.

    UNDP Independent Evaluation Office. Independent Country Programme Evaluation: Ecuador. December 2021, Finding 14 (COVID-19). The evaluation covers UNDP's program in Ecuador from 2019 to June 2021.

    An artificial intelligence solution, the ‘Catalina’ Chatbot, was set up to help the Government unblock the hotline to attend to COVID-19 patients and questions, available on over 76 government webpages with more than 450 questions and answers. This initiative was led by UNDP and funded by five United Nations agencies, and over 164,900 chats were answered between May and August 2020.

  2. Press release, by the organization that used it.

    UNDP Ecuador. Herramienta virtual responde consultas de la ciudadanía sobre COVID-19. News release, 31 August 2020 (archived copy). UNDP led the chatbot initiative with Ecuador's Ministry of Telecommunications.

    Hasta finales de agosto, se han atendido más de 500.000 consultas, realizadas por 175.000 usuarios, de una manera ágil y rápida, permitiendo descongestionar la demanda de información en los servicios públicos.
    A partir de un software de inteligencia artificial, el robot virtual tiene la capacidad de simular una conversación con una persona.

  3. Other, by the makers. Context or contrary evidence.

    1MillionBot. Catalina, the assistant on COVID-19 in Ecuador. Web page of the company, read 31 October 2026.

    Catalina, the Ecuadorian government's coronavirus chatbot, was developed by a multidisciplinary group of experts from 1MillionBot

Details

AI system

Workflow

The chatbot ran on over 76 government webpages with more than 450 questions and answers. UNDP led the initiative, and five UN agencies funded it. Its answers drew on the World Health Organization and other official sources.

Follow-up

Conditions for replication

The chatbot must sit on the government websites that people already visit. Answers must be kept current from official sources as the emergency changes.

Entry details

Sector

Public health / government services.

Purpose

1MillionBot built Catalina to answer citizens' questions about COVID-19 on Ecuadorian government websites and relieve the government's hotline.

Not yet checked: model, release, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, AI contribution, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, other identifiers, category mappings.

Cite this record

Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Catalina chatbot answers over 164,900 COVID-19 chats in Ecuador (AIBD-0697). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 31 October 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0697.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 4.0)

BibTeX Data Field definitions