Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
About us
Impact and financial reports
Economic opportunity
Health
Around the world
In the United States
Join our team
Local partners
Government and multilateral funders
Foundations and corporations
Academic and research partners
Small businesses and vendors
Newsroom
Our storytelling
Blog
Resource library
When teachers have a full understanding of what they are teaching and how to effectively teach, their students perform better. In Madagascar, teachers need support to strengthen their pedagogical skills and develop their content knowledge. Eighty percent of primary school teachers are not certified, and just 4% of all teachers have the essential content knowledge needed to teach foundational skills.
These factors contribute to low school completion rates and poor learning outcomes. Only about 63% of Malagasy girls and 58% of boys complete primary school, and most 10-year-olds can’t read and understand an age-appropriate text.
FHI 360, through the FIANTSO project — funded by the Hempel Foundation and operating in the southeastern Atsimo-Atsinanana region — is offering math and Malagasy language training and ongoing teacher professional development. To support the training, FHI 360 developed an AI-powered pedagogical chatbot. This tool was created through a collaborative, internally funded initiative, bringing together FHI 360 staff with varied expertise — including education, digital development, and monitoring, evaluation and learning — in close coordination with staff in Madagascar.
FHI 360 designed the chatbot to address a challenge faced by the champion teachers, zone leaders, school principals and pedagogical advisors who are heading the FIANTSO professional development program. Many pedagogical resources exist, but they are in different books and PDFs, not synthesized in one place. It’s difficult to quickly translate this content into easy-to-use advice.
“We thought, could AI support the work that FIANTSO is doing to strengthen teacher training skills by making this information more accessible and actionable?” says FHI 360 Senior Research Associate Rafael Contreras Gomez, who acted as product manager for the chatbot.
FHI 360 developed the chatbot in fall 2025 using a proven methodology informed by prior experience and already applied in other projects. Over three weeks in January, FHI 360 piloted the chatbot with 16 teachers and instructional leaders. It is trained on a repository of Ministry of National Education-validated teacher training and coaching modules for Malagasy and math instruction. When users ask it questions, answers include the source documents, complementing the existing resources rather than replacing them.
Malagasy is often spoken and written using dialect variations. The chatbot can understand the spelling of dialect Malagasy, meaning it can respond to the questions and prompts that people have in the language that they commonly speak.
Participants used a WhatsApp group to share their experiences, receive support, and offer feedback to FHI 360. For example, some expressed interest in guidance specific to where they are in a lesson sequence, so FHI 360 will add that ability.
The pilot results were promising: 70% of users said the chatbot was very useful and 80% shared that it was easy or very easy to use. Two-thirds of participants used the chatbot two to three times a week, both in school and at home.
“This tool supports us during pedagogical learning sessions in teacher council and network meetings,” says Anneline Pierrette Razafileny, a school director in Farafangana. “It is practical and accessible due to how it allows me to ask questions and get answers directly in the Malagasy language.”
The chatbot’s professional development benefits are clear. It is also an introduction to AI for many participants. A key design decision was to incorporate guardrails: To avoid hallucinations, the chatbot only retrieves information from validated resources, and it only responds to pedagogy-related questions.
“Even in a context where digital literacy remains low and AI penetration remains even lower, the chatbot proved very intuitive for people to use,” says Rafael. “We’re bringing teachers in rural areas access to training on responsible uses of AI by giving them a resource they can use and trust.”
In the coming months, FHI 360 plans to refine the chatbot’s user interface and embed it into channels that teachers already use, like WhatsApp, to reflect user feedback and best practices for deploying digital products. Access is another consideration — how to ensure teachers can use the chatbot in a context where not everyone has a smartphone.
Once a fine-tuned version of the chatbot is ready, the team aims to test its effectiveness through a robust impact evaluation. If results indicate the chatbot’s potential to improve outcomes for teachers, instructional leaders, and critically, learners, the team will seek to scale the chatbot to more users over time.
What makes the chatbot special is that it’s not happening in isolation. “We’re not introducing it as a silver bullet,” says Rafael. “It’s part of a whole package of interventions in which the AI solution is enhancing something that has been going on for years, that is robust, that has the support of the government.”
All photos are credited to Todisoa Rasolonandrasana for FHI 360.
We are a nonprofit organization that mobilizes research, resources and relationships so that people everywhere can access the opportunities they need to lead full, healthy lives.
FHI 360 Headquarters
359 Blackwell Street, Suite 200
Durham, NC 27701 USA
1.919.544.7040
Washington, D.C., Office
2101 L St NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20037 USA
1.202.884.8000
Anti-trafficking statement
Sign up for our mailing list and receive the latest updates from FHI 360 straight to your inbox!
FHI 360 is the registered trade name of Family Health International.
We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Essential cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. However, they can be enabled or disabled using the button below.
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
