Yuri Soares, Chief Impact Officer at IDB Lab, shares insights into their evolving strategies, challenges, and the successful implementation of avatar-based survey instruments across three pilot projects in different countries.

Watch the full interview here.

Background: IDB Lab's mission and focus

IDB Lab

serves as the innovation and venture capital branch of the

Inter-American Development Bank Group

. They foster early-stage innovation with a focus on technology and entrepreneurship, benefiting poor and vulnerable populations while supporting new industries from early startups to scale-ups, with a special emphasis on the technology sector. Their primary mission is to address challenges such as climate change, poverty, and inequality through innovative solutions and technologies.

The challenge of measuring impact

Measuring impact across a diverse portfolio of companies, with a broad range of sectors and developmental stages involved, is one of the central challenges for IDB Lab. Some companies, especially tech-driven ones, can gather and analyse data internally. However, those without this capacity require external support, which can increase the cost and complexity of measuring results.

Initially, IDB Lab employed randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to measure the success of interventions. While RCTs are effective, they are expensive, often costing between $200,000 and $300,000 per project. Later, they moved towards evaluation and monitoring products focused on scalability, market development, and ecosystem development. Currently, they are working to lower costs by leveraging technology to collect monitoring data, which enables them to track project outcomes in health, education, and employment, while keeping costs manageable.

Innovative data collection: avatars and AI

A significant innovation in IDB Lab's impact measurement has been the use of avatar-based survey instruments developed by Fortell. These tools enable a deeper collection of qualitative data, allowing respondents to share their experiences and perceptions of projects.

When asked about the effectiveness of using Fortell's AI-driven solution, Soares highlighted, “With your company, we were able to significantly lower costs by deploying avatar-based survey instruments. Unlike traditional instruments that collect discrete data on income or demographics, these surveys focused on capturing the richness of respondents' experiences with the project. By using artificial intelligence, we were able to deconstruct commonalities among respondents, identifying their challenges and the benefits they perceived as most important.”

In three pilots conducted in Venezuela, Chile, and Ecuador, this technology helped IDB Lab gather richer insights into the social and economic impacts of projects, particularly those involving migrants. “In Venezuela, we conducted a pilot project within the education system. Venezuela is a primary source of migrants due to its political and economic conditions. The recipients of these migrants were the subjects of our other two projects, located in Ecuador and Chile. In Chile, we worked with a fintech company called

Galgo

, which provided financing for motorbikes and other financial needs. Their initial focus was on Venezuelan migrants. In Ecuador, we implemented a broader project aimed at generating economic opportunities for migrants and the communities they lived in. This project addressed both economic and social needs.”

During these studies, IDB Lab also made an interesting discovery regarding the social perception of the avatars. Soares added, “We found that the respondents were more open to sharing experiences, the length of the interview was longer, and the quality of the data was a little bit better with the female avatars. We extended our understanding from real-life experiences with human beings to the digital experience with avatars, and I think that was tremendously interesting.”

IDB Lab's experience with AI-driven surveys showcases the power of innovative data collection techniques in addressing some of the key challenges in impact measurement. This hybrid approach will help them continue to drive innovation while addressing the critical needs of Latin America's most vulnerable populations.