Luhut Reveals New Social Assistance Distribution to Be Digitally Based and Use AI

National Economic Council (DEN) Chairman Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan spoke about the government’s steps to optimise digitalisation in governance through government technology (govtech), including in the distribution of social assistance. Luhut said the government would make social assistance distribution more efficient with artificial intelligence (AI) support for beneficiaries. This was conveyed by Luhut after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday. Luhut was accompanied by DEN members Chatib Basri, Septian Hario Seto and Firman Hidayat. ‘Regarding govtech, President Prabowo’s government will be based on digitalisation with AI support, therefore we see that in the not too distant future we will have a digital single ID,’ Luhut said. Luhut stated the digital single ID will be used in the social assistance distribution system to ensure it is right on target. Government subsidies, according to Luhut, will also increasingly be distributed directly to beneficiaries rather than in the form of goods. ‘Maybe by the end of this year there will be a digital single ID which will result in social assistance or direct cash transfers being targeted and that will save a fairly large amount. Some numbers might be quite large, and I see that later subsidies will no longer be for goods, subsidies will go directly to recipients,’ Luhut said. Luhut said the optimisation of AI use is also applied in the grouping of social assistance beneficiaries. He mentioned that eventually all forms of social assistance can be distributed to beneficiaries reaching an average of IDR 5.4 million per person. ‘Because on average we collect all social assistance with cash transfers and so on, there is IDR 5.4 million per person and this will later be grouped using AI,’ he said.