Komdigi Prepares AI to Distribute Social Assistance to 50 Million People

Minister of Communication and Information Meutya Hafid (photo: Dinda Buana/VOI)

JAKARTA - Communication and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid stated that his party is preparing to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in distributing social assistance (bansos) to all Indonesian people in need.

Meutya explained that the government plans to carry out digital interventions through social assistance. Previously, a trial had been carried out in Banyuwangi, East Java. With AI, Komdigi targets the distribution of social assistance to 50 million recipients.

According to him, if this implementation is successfully implemented nationally, the program has the potential to become one of the largest digital financial inclusion initiatives in the world.

"When this is running, this could be one of the largest digital financial inclusion programs in the world because the recipients are approximately 18 million families or about 50 million Indonesians," said Meutya in a press conference on Digital Ecosystem Alignment (DEAL) on Tuesday, June 23 in Jakarta.

He also emphasized that the implementation of AI must have a real impact on the community. According to Meutya, the main goal of digital transformation is to increase productivity and welfare of the community, including farmers, fishermen, MSMEs, to the younger generation of Indonesia.

The Minister of Communication and Information hopes that the use of AI in the social assistance program can be a concrete example of how technology is used to improve the quality of public services while expanding people's access to financial services and social assistance in a more targeted manner.

The discourse on the use of AI for social assistance has actually been expressed by the Chairman of the National Economic Council (DEN) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who targets the national launch of an AI-based digital social protection system (perlinsos) in October-November 2026.

Luhut said that later the system would not only be used for social assistance (bansos) distribution, but also various other government programs. He added that implementation would be carried out gradually as the data update process continued.