Case Study | SharpenAI
Scaling Communication with AI: How SIP Abacus Replaced Manual Calls with a 24/7 AI Voice Agent
Scaling Communication with AI: How SIP Abacus Replaced Manual Calls with a 24/7 AI Voice Agent
By SharpenAI Team on July 28, 2025
Overview
SIP Abacus is a leading education company offering after-school programs in mental arithmetic and cognitive development. Through a network of learning centers, it provides children with structured abacus-based training to boost their math skills and concentration. As an innovator in its space, SIP Abacus has been expanding rapidly while maintaining a reputation for quality instruction and individualized attention.
SIP Abacus is a leading education company offering after-school programs in mental arithmetic and cognitive development. Through a network of learning centers, it provides children with structured abacus-based training to boost their math skills and concentration. As an innovator in its space, SIP Abacus has been expanding rapidly while maintaining a reputation for quality instruction and individualized attention.
Business Challenge
Rapid growth brought operational growing pains. Each new center added significant manual workload – scheduling classes, enrolling students, sending reminders, and answering parent inquiries all demanded staff time. The small administrative team was stretched thin coordinating classes and communications across centers.
Inefficiencies began to surface: classes sometimes ran with empty seats due to scheduling mix-ups or slow follow-ups, and administrators spent hours each day on repetitive tasks instead of focusing on growth or student support. These bottlenecks drove up the cost per student and threatened to stall expansion. The challenge was clear: how to scale up the business without scaling up headcount, ensuring every class is full and every student is served efficiently.
Rapid growth brought operational growing pains. Each new center added significant manual workload – scheduling classes, enrolling students, sending reminders, and answering parent inquiries all demanded staff time. The small administrative team was stretched thin coordinating classes and communications across centers.
Inefficiencies began to surface: classes sometimes ran with empty seats due to scheduling mix-ups or slow follow-ups, and administrators spent hours each day on repetitive tasks instead of focusing on growth or student support. These bottlenecks drove up the cost per student and threatened to stall expansion. The challenge was clear: how to scale up the business without scaling up headcount, ensuring every class is full and every student is served efficiently.
Objectives
SIP Abacus set out to overhaul its operations with clear, metrics-driven goals. First, dramatically reduce the time spent on routine admin tasks to free staff for higher-value work. Second, maximize class fill rates – aiming for near 100% occupancy in each class – to utilize capacity fully. Third, lower the administrative cost per student by improving efficiency and eliminating waste. Finally, enable expansion: the team’s ambition was to open new centers without hiring additional staff, proving that growth could come from smarter processes rather than just more people. In short, success would be measured by a leaner operation that can scale without sacrificing service quality.
SIP Abacus set out to overhaul its operations with clear, metrics-driven goals. First, dramatically reduce the time spent on routine admin tasks to free staff for higher-value work. Second, maximize class fill rates – aiming for near 100% occupancy in each class – to utilize capacity fully. Third, lower the administrative cost per student by improving efficiency and eliminating waste. Finally, enable expansion: the team’s ambition was to open new centers without hiring additional staff, proving that growth could come from smarter processes rather than just more people. In short, success would be measured by a leaner operation that can scale without sacrificing service quality.
Strategy
To achieve these goals, SIP Abacus embraced an automation-first strategy. Instead of hiring more administrators for each new center, the company invested in an AI-driven operational system to handle the heavy lifting. The strategy centered on automating repetitive workflows (like class scheduling, reminders, and follow-ups) and deploying an intelligent assistant to manage routine communications. By letting technology work 24/7 in the background – scheduling classes, handling inquiries, and nudging students to attend – SIP Abacus aimed to decouple growth from headcount. This approach ensured personalized service for families and high utilization of each class, even as the business scaled up rapidly.
To achieve these goals, SIP Abacus embraced an automation-first strategy. Instead of hiring more administrators for each new center, the company invested in an AI-driven operational system to handle the heavy lifting. The strategy centered on automating repetitive workflows (like class scheduling, reminders, and follow-ups) and deploying an intelligent assistant to manage routine communications. By letting technology work 24/7 in the background – scheduling classes, handling inquiries, and nudging students to attend – SIP Abacus aimed to decouple growth from headcount. This approach ensured personalized service for families and high utilization of each class, even as the business scaled up rapidly.
Solution
SIP Abacus implemented a customized AI-powered operations platform with several key capabilities:
Automated Scheduling & Enrollment:
New student sign-ups and class schedules were managed automatically. The system matched students to appropriate classes and time slots, updated rosters in real time, and sent instant confirmations to parents – all without staff intervention.
AI Assistant for Communication:
A virtual assistant handled routine parent inquiries and notifications. Whether parents asked about class times, enrollment procedures, or center locations, the AI provided prompt answers. It also sent out class reminders and updates via chat and email, ensuring families stayed informed without administrators making dozens of phone calls.
Dynamic Class Management:
The platform actively tracked class capacities and attendance. It could invite waitlisted students the moment a spot opened up or suggest combining under-enrolled sessions, keeping the fill rate high. If a student missed a class, the system would offer a makeup session to keep learners on track and seats filled.
Centralized Dashboard:
Staff oversaw operations through a real-time dashboard aggregating all centers. They could monitor enrollment numbers, class fill percentages, and any pending tasks at a glance. One administrator could now efficiently manage what previously took an entire team across multiple locations.
SIP Abacus implemented a customized AI-powered operations platform with several key capabilities:
Automated Scheduling & Enrollment:
New student sign-ups and class schedules were managed automatically. The system matched students to appropriate classes and time slots, updated rosters in real time, and sent instant confirmations to parents – all without staff intervention.
AI Assistant for Communication:
A virtual assistant handled routine parent inquiries and notifications. Whether parents asked about class times, enrollment procedures, or center locations, the AI provided prompt answers. It also sent out class reminders and updates via chat and email, ensuring families stayed informed without administrators making dozens of phone calls.
Dynamic Class Management:
The platform actively tracked class capacities and attendance. It could invite waitlisted students the moment a spot opened up or suggest combining under-enrolled sessions, keeping the fill rate high. If a student missed a class, the system would offer a makeup session to keep learners on track and seats filled.
Centralized Dashboard:
Staff oversaw operations through a real-time dashboard aggregating all centers. They could monitor enrollment numbers, class fill percentages, and any pending tasks at a glance. One administrator could now efficiently manage what previously took an entire team across multiple locations.
“Before Sharpen AI, our team was spending hours every day just coordinating schedules and responding to parent inquiries. Now, our AI assistant handles it all — from reminders to enrollment updates — allowing us to focus on what matters most: our students. The automation didn’t just save time; it transformed how we operate.”
“Before Sharpen AI, our team was spending hours every day just coordinating schedules and responding to parent inquiries. Now, our AI assistant handles it all — from reminders to enrollment updates — allowing us to focus on what matters most: our students. The automation didn’t just save time; it transformed how we operate.”
Harpreet S.
SIP Abacus
Results
The impact of the AI-driven solution was immediate and quantifiable:
70% reduction in administrative work time, saving over 120 hours per month of staff effort.
Class occupancy surged to a 95% fill rate, meaning nearly every seat in every class was utilized.
Administrative cost per student dropped by 23%, significantly improving operational margins.
5 new centers launched during expansion with zero increase in headcount – not a single hire was needed to support the additional locations.
The impact of the AI-driven solution was immediate and quantifiable:
70% reduction in administrative work time, saving over 120 hours per month of staff effort.
Class occupancy surged to a 95% fill rate, meaning nearly every seat in every class was utilized.
Administrative cost per student dropped by 23%, significantly improving operational margins.
5 new centers launched during expansion with zero increase in headcount – not a single hire was needed to support the additional locations.
Business Impact
SIP Abacus fundamentally transformed its operations. Freed from repetitive busywork, the team can concentrate on delivering a better learning experience and driving strategic growth. Each center now runs smoothly with a lean staff, and opening five new centers without adding employees has validated the scalability of this model. Higher class fill rates translate to more learning impact and revenue per session, while lower costs per student improve the bottom line.
In essence, SIP Abacus built a scalable operating model powered by AI – one that grows by working smarter, not harder. The organization is now poised to continue its rapid expansion without missing a beat, maintaining quality education at scale and giving leadership the confidence to grow further.
SIP Abacus fundamentally transformed its operations. Freed from repetitive busywork, the team can concentrate on delivering a better learning experience and driving strategic growth. Each center now runs smoothly with a lean staff, and opening five new centers without adding employees has validated the scalability of this model. Higher class fill rates translate to more learning impact and revenue per session, while lower costs per student improve the bottom line.
In essence, SIP Abacus built a scalable operating model powered by AI – one that grows by working smarter, not harder. The organization is now poised to continue its rapid expansion without missing a beat, maintaining quality education at scale and giving leadership the confidence to grow further.
“Sharpen AI helped us achieve what once seemed impossible — expanding five new centers without hiring a single additional staff member. The AI call and scheduling system runs so smoothly that we’ve turned scalability from a challenge into our greatest strength.”
“Sharpen AI helped us achieve what once seemed impossible — expanding five new centers without hiring a single additional staff member. The AI call and scheduling system runs so smoothly that we’ve turned scalability from a challenge into our greatest strength.”
Harpreet S.
SIP Abacus