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Good practice

Rencat — the Municipality of Renca's AI Virtual Assistant for Chilean Residents

Chile · Renca · See the Chile profile

Chile's Municipality of Renca launched Rencat, a 24/7 AI virtual assistant built by Argentine vendor BotMaker (creator of Buenos Aires' Boti), reaching over 20,000 users in its first three months with a self-reported 90% resident satisfaction rate.

20,000+ users
Users, January-March 2023 (self-reported) (Jan-Mar 2023)
90 %
Resident satisfaction rate (self-reported) (Jan-Mar 2023)
~9 seconds
Average response time
45 % of votes cast
Name-vote support share
Rencat — the Municipality of Renca's AI Virtual Assistant for Chilean Residents

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ilustre Municipalidad de Renca
Period
January 2023 – ongoing
Keywords
AI chatbot, municipal government, citizen engagement, WhatsApp, digital services

Context

Rencat is a 24/7 AI virtual assistant for the Chilean municipality of Renca, operational since January 2023 and publicly unveiled in March 2023 by Mayor Claudio Castro. It grew out of 'Renca Responde,' a pandemic-era messaging line the municipality had set up when in-person access to services was restricted, and was built by BotMaker, an Argentine chatbot vendor whose earlier product, Boti, already served the City of Buenos Aires — making Rencat BotMaker's first public-sector client in Chile.

Objectives

The assistant aims to give residents round-the-clock access to municipal transactions and information across multiple messaging channels, without needing to visit municipal offices in person.

Activities

Rencat runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year across five channels — WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, the municipal participation site rencaparticipa.cl, and renca.cl — handling transactions such as vehicle-circulation permit renewals, waste-collection fee payments, school enrolment, telehealth bookings and property-tax payments, alongside general information on workshops, sports, culture and social services. Residents chose the assistant's name through a social-media vote.

Results

Municipal administrator Julián Gallardo reported more than 20,000 users and a 90% resident satisfaction rate between January and March 2023, with an average response time of about nine seconds.

Conclusions

Rencat is a genuine, functioning multi-channel municipal AI deployment, but its performance figures are self-reported rather than independently audited, and as of the sources reviewed it remains confined to this single municipality with no documented expansion to other Chilean comunas.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No public budget or contract figures disclosed; estimated as low given it is a single-municipality vendor deployment reusing an existing messaging channel.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Operational from January 2023, publicly launched two months later in March 2023 — a short build-to-launch timeline.
Staffing & skills
BotMaker (Argentine chatbot vendor, also builder of Buenos Aires' Boti) built and operates the platform, Municipal administrator Julián Gallardo oversees reporting, Mayor Claudio Castro publicly launched the tool at the Renca innovation centre La Fábrica

Conditions for success

  • Built on an existing engagement channel ('Renca Responde') rather than starting from zero
  • Multi-channel deployment (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, municipal websites) meeting residents where they already are
  • Resident participation in naming the assistant, aiding public buy-in

Common failure modes

  • No independently audited accuracy or satisfaction data has been published
  • Deployment remains confined to a single municipality with no documented expansion

Where it fits

Governance type
local/municipal government
Scale
single municipality
Income level
high-income

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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