How Circle Women's Baji Chatbot Empowered 58,000+ Women to Start and Grow Their Businesses
On a Mission to Empower 1 Million Women Micro-Entrepreneurs in Pakistan with Turn.io's WhatsApp Business API
- 58K+Women
Reached - 8K+Businesses
Created - 94%Gained Digital Skills
- 51%Increased
Revenue
This case study forms part of the Chat for Women's Livelihoods (CWL) Accelerator, developed by Turn.io and supported by the Gates Foundation. The accelerator helps social enterprises build chat solutions using Turn.io's WhatsApp platform to empower women, expand their work, agency, and incomes, and provide a framework for delivering impactful chat solutions at scale.
Discover how Pakistan's leading women's economic empowerment nonprofit built Baji, the country's first AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot, to deliver entrepreneurship training, digital skills, and financial literacy to women across 100+ cities—transforming livelihoods and building a path to 1 million women entrepreneurs.
About Circle Women:
From Dining Table to National Impact
CIRCLE Women Association (CWA) is a leading national nonprofit that leverages AI and digital innovation to advance women's economic empowerment and close the gender divide in Pakistan. Headquartered in Lahore and operating across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan, CWA delivers scalable, impactful solutions that combine AI-powered learning with community-rooted outreach.
CIRCLE's journey began at founder and CEO Sadaffe Abid's dining table. With a clear vision to create opportunities for women and help drive Pakistan's economic prosperity, she recognized that addressing one of the lowest female labour participation rates in South Asia was critical.
CIRCLE's journey began at founder and CEO Sadaffe Abid's dining table. With a clear vision to create opportunities for women and help drive Pakistan's economic prosperity, she recognized that addressing one of the lowest female labour participation rates in South Asia was critical.
From women making handicrafts along the banks of the Indus River to those from marginalised communities in urban centres, Circle Women understands the unique challenges Pakistani women face and designs solutions that address their needs while bridging the gender gap.
Through its five core pillars—Digital Adoption, Work Readiness, Financial Inclusion, Digital Safety, and Entrepreneurship—CWA equips women with the critical skills, practical tools, and empowering networks they need to thrive, compete, and lead in the digital economy.
"Targeted support, technical mentorship, and peer learning can accelerate the growth of inclusive digital solutions. CIRCLE Baji shows how WhatsApp can be a powerful platform for women's economic empowerment."
Sadaffe Abid
Founder & CEO, Circle Women
The Challenge:
Bridging the Gap for Women Excluded from Economic Opportunity
In Pakistan, home to over 240 million people, women remain systematically excluded from critical pathways to prosperity. The barriers are structural, cultural, and technological—creating a complex web that keeps millions of women from reaching their economic potential.
24%
Women in
workforce
1%
Formal women entrepreneurs
13%
Women with
bank accounts
25%
Gender gap in
mobile Internet
The Barriers Women Face
Business profile: Only 45% of women use mobile internet compared to over 60% of men
Phone ownership gap: Women are 35% less likely to own a mobile phone
Financial exclusion: Only 13% of women have bank accounts
Urban concentration: Digital tools and job-readiness resources remain largely in urban hubs
Cultural constraints: Traditional barriers limit women's mobility and economic participation
Who is Most Affected?
Those most impacted are informally employed women, aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs, and young women (18-30) seeking employment who lack digital skills or work-readiness training.
Why is This Urgent?
Addressing systemic exclusion from the workforce and financial systems is vital for women's independence, strengthens household resilience, reduces poverty, and contributes to the country's national economic growth and stability.
"I wanted to support my family, but without guidance on where to start, I felt left behind. Opportunities like Circle Women's Baji chatbot give women like me a chance to learn, grow, and make a decent living."
— CIRCLE Baji User
The solution
Baji—A WhatsApp first digital mentor for women entrepreneurs
Baji is more than just a WhatsApp chatbot; it is designed as a trusted companion for women navigating their entrepreneurial and work readiness journey, while providing much-needed mental health support. The name "Baji" means "older sister" in Urdu—embodying the supportive, approachable guidance the platform provides.
WhatsApp is already widely used by women in Pakistan, making it an ideal platform for reaching them where they already are. Once users join, they are welcomed by Baji, who guides them through engaging, multimedia learning journeys in their preferred language.
📱
Simple Onboarding
Users message Baji on WhatsApp and select from menus in Urdu or English to start their journey
📚
Guided Learning Paths
Structured pathways introduce skills in entrepreneurship, digital literacy, financial literacy, and job readiness
🎬
Bite-Sized Content
Each lesson broken into digestible steps with videos, voice notes, infographics, and quizzes
📋
Downloadable Resources
Women can download templates like budgeting sheets or marketing plans directly through chat
🤖
AI-Powered Assistance
"Ask Baji Anything" feature offers personalised answers and links to relevant opportunities
🔔
Smart Nudges
Reminders encourage users to complete modules and stay engaged with their learning
Comprehensive Learning Tracks
Baji delivers training across multiple domains, each carefully designed to address the specific needs of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan:
- Business & Entrepreneurship: Pricing, budgeting, marketing strategies, and business planning
- Digital Skills: WhatsApp Business, Canva, social media marketing, and online selling
- Financial Literacy: Digital wallets, savings, budgeting tools, and digital payments
- Work Readiness: Communication, time management, CV building, and interview skills
- Health & Wellbeing: Practical tips on mental health, motivation, and self-care
The Baji User Journey in Action: A woman interested in starting a tailoring business can ask Baji for guidance on getting started. She is guided through pricing her services, creating a budget using a downloadable template, and promoting her business on WhatsApp and Instagram. Along the way, reminders encourage her to complete each step, and the AI assistant answers personalised questions about finding new customers or opening a mobile wallet.
What Makes Baji Innovative
The combination of trusted community-led onboarding, interactive micro-learning, and AI-driven personalised support on WhatsApp creates an accessible, scalable, user-friendly service tailored to the realities of women in low-income communities in Pakistan.
The Results:
Transforming Skills into Business Success
Through the accelerator, CIRCLE has established a scalable product model and positioned Baji as an effective platform to support women's empowerment. The chatbot achieved strong results across digital adoption, market access, revenue growth, and confidence-building.
Key Impact Metrics
Women reached
58,192
During accelerator period
Gained new digital skills
94%
Skills adoption rate
Developed online selling skills
81%
E-Commerce ready
Entrepreneurs gained customers
58%
Business growth
Expanded into new markets
54%
Market expansion
Reported increased revenue
51%
Income growth
Baji's service design proved especially effective in translating new skills into tangible business outcomes.
The Accelerator Journey:
From Training Tool to Scalable Platform
Critical Support from the Chat for Women's Livelihoods Accelerator
The accelerator provided CIRCLE with critical mentorship and peer learning opportunities that transformed how they approached their WhatsApp solution.
Key Learnings & Growth
The team gained valuable expertise in conversation design, A/B testing, segmentation, and go-to-market strategies. What started as a complement to on-ground training evolved during the accelerator into a scalable, standalone platform.
"Midway, we realised the potential… this can scale our reach and impact far beyond on-the-ground training."
— CIRCLE Team
Accelerator Achievements
Engaged 58,192 women through the platform
Revamped guided journeys to be shorter, modular, and more interactive
Trained Baji's AI assistant with CIRCLE's contextual knowledge
Expanded partnerships with influencers, women’s networks, and universities
Completed an organisational shift to a scalable product model
Overcoming Challenges
CIRCLE faced hurdles due to limited digital literacy among users and lengthy content journeys that led to high drop-off rates. By prioritising user feedback, redesigning content to be concise and adaptable, and leveraging AI to tailor the onboarding process, CIRCLE turned these challenges into opportunities to refine the chatbot.
Beyond the Numbers:
Impact on Women's Lives
CIRCLE's approach integrates training, innovative technology, and community to support and transform women's economic outcomes. The impact extends far beyond individual users:
The Ripple Effect: When women gain economic empowerment, entire families and communities benefit. Skills learned through Baji don't just help individual women—they create multiplier effects as women share knowledge, hire others, and reinvest in their communities.
Looking Forward:
The Road to 1 Million Women
Circle Women has ambitious plans to significantly scale Baji's reach and impact:
Growth Targets
Sustainability Strategy
To strengthen sustainability, Circle Women is transitioning Baji from a donor-funded initiative to a social enterprise model, generating revenue through B2B partnerships and sponsored learning journeys.
Innovation Roadmap
Baji will serve as a tool for AI-driven surveys and insights, enabling large-scale polling and behaviour trend analysis that can be monetised as research reports for partners and used to develop the platform further.
These plans position Baji not just as a learning platform, but as a scalable and sustainable ecosystem for women's empowerment in Pakistan.
These plans position Baji not just as a learning platform, but as a scalable and sustainable ecosystem for women's empowerment in Pakistan.
"Even if you think something is wrong with the service and you need to improve, it won't be perfect, and you have to keep going. That encouragement was much needed."
CIRCLE Team
Implications for Women's Economic Empowerment Globally
Multi-Dimensional Transformation
CIRCLE Women's Baji chatbot demonstrates the transformative potential of AI-driven WhatsApp services to advance women's entrepreneurship, digital inclusion, and economic empowerment in Pakistan and other low-resource environments.A Replicable Model
CIRCLE Baji's progress through the Accelerator offers a replicable model for how using Turn.io's WhatsApp solution, coupled with targeted support and guidance, can result in a service that:- Empowers women with practical, accessible skills
- Strengthens livelihoods through business growth and market access
- Creates lasting economic change across communities
Key Success Factors
- Meet women where they are: WhatsApp is already familiar and trusted
- Design for low literacy: Multimedia content and voice notes increase accessibility
- Build confidence alongside skills: The "older sister" approach addresses psychological barriers
- Make content actionable: Templates and tools enable immediate application
- BUse AI thoughtfully: Personalised responses increase relevance and engagement
Ready to Empower Women Through WhatsApp?
Learn how Turn.io's WhatsApp Business API and the Chat for Women's Livelihoods Accelerator can help your organization create impactful solutions for women's economic empowerment.
Contact Turn.io