AI Training for Micro-Entrepreneurs

Last registered on October 22, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
AI Training for Micro-Entrepreneurs
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017023
Initial registration date
October 15, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 22, 2025, 1:12 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Juan Pedro Ronconi
Affiliation
Universidad de los Andes, Chile
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Marcos Balmaceda
PI Affiliation
KU Leuven
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-08-11
End date
2026-10-01
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
The objective of the experiment is to test whether a short online course that introduces GenAI for microentrepreneurs and teaches key business practices for small firms—marketing, inventory management, record-keeping, and financial planning—through examples applying AI prompting skills, leads to greater AI adoption and better firm performance. We collaborate with a Chilean platform that offers free online training to microentrepreneurs to design and implement the course.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Balmaceda, Marcos and Juan Pedro Ronconi. 2025. "AI Training for Micro-Entrepreneurs." AEA RCT Registry. October 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17023-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention consists of offering the course to half of the respondents of the baseline survey. The control group will not receive anything while the trial lasts (pure control). They will receive access to the course after the endline survey is collected (6 months after the intervention).
Intervention Start Date
2025-10-20
Intervention End Date
2026-04-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We will obtain measures on GenAI usage (intensive and extensive margins), prompting sophistication, business practices (marketing, inventory management, record-keeping, and financial planning) and firm performance (revenue and profits).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We obtained baseline data on roughly 900 participants during August-September 2025. We will stratify the sample in two groups, treatment and control. We will send invitations for the online course on GenAI to the treatment group. The control group will not receive invitations and will not have access to the course through the platform either. We will collect midline and endline surveys roughly 2 and 6 months after the start of the intervention. We will incentivize survey participation with prizes.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Stratified randomization done in Stata.
Randomization Unit
Individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
The main sample consists of the roughly 900 individuals for which we have baseline data. Because treatment take up may be low, we will also randomize treatment among the registered users in the platform that did not answer the baseline survey.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Half of the sample will be assigned to treatment and half will be assigned to control.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
KU Leuven's Social and Societal Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-08
IRB Approval Number
G-2025-9877-R2(MAR)
Analysis Plan