I have returned to Indonesia many times over the years. Each visit reminds me of the country’s extraordinary scale and promise: the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, the world’s largest archipelago country, and Southeast Asia’s only member of the G20.
But this time, in my discussion with President Prabowo Subianto and senior ministers, something else stood out. Alongside Indonesia’s huge scale and economic potential, they are facing the same challenge political leaders face everywhere: how to govern in the Age of AI.
The expectations of citizens are rising fast, driven by the ongoing technological revolution of artificial intelligence. And the job of political leaders is to reimagine government, equally fast, to meet those expectations.
The government of Indonesia is beginning to do that, starting with the issues that most affect citizen’s lives. And if they can build on this momentum, with the right policies and technologies, there is the potential not just to transform Indonesia, but to offer an example to the world.
Let’s be clear. All leaders are governing in the age of AI, whether they like it or not, because their citizens are already living in the age of AI. Digital services, increasingly accelerated by AI, are part of daily life. Citizens are used to the speed and simplicity of private-sector platforms, from e-commerce to digital payments.
Indonesia is a young, dynamic country, and young people raised on the expectation that they can run their lives from their phones will expect the government to be similarly responsive.
To meet these fast-growing expectations political leaders need to reimagine the role of the state for the new age of technology. That means using technology not just to do the same old things more efficiently, but to completely rethink how the state works to make use of the possibilities of AI.
Two things are crucial to this reimagined state: prevention and personalization.
Governments must move from reacting to problems to preventing them. Healthcare is a clear example. We all know that prevention is better than cure but few health systems have really succeeded in delivering true preventative health. With AI that can change.
Indonesia has a huge opportunity with President Prabowo’s Free Health Check-Up program to start building the joined-up data and systems for prevention to become a reality: contacting people to see a doctor before issues get worse, and spotting population health trends, and disease patterns early.
And AI is the most powerful tool for personalization ever built. Here the goal must be to build government systems that understand and respond to people’s individual life and family circumstances, rather than squeezing them into a rigid category on a government form.
Social assistance in Indonesia is a great example. Social assistance can be crucial in supporting the most vulnerable citizens. But only if the right people can access it quickly and easily when they need it most.
The digital social assistance pilot in Banyuwangi, East Java, which my institute team partnered with the government on last year, is the beginning of such a system. For the first time citizens can check their eligibility online and track their application without relying on local intermediaries. This makes the process simpler for citizens and improves the accuracy of beneficiary data, helping ensure that assistance reaches those who need it most.
The first pilot has delivered results. More than 55 percent of households in Banyuwangi have been registered, with more than 9,000 people using the system to correct inaccurate information. For many families this support is life-changing. It can mean having enough money to buy your children’s school books, pay for prescriptions, or simply make ends meet. And it’s great to see that it is now being expanded from one pilot area to dozens of cities and regencies across Indonesia, so more Indonesians can benefit.
But the significance of this work lies not only in the service citizens see at the front end. It also lies in the hard, often invisible work required behind the scenes: building the digital public infrastructure through a whole-of-government effort that allows the government to deliver with greater accuracy, accountability, and speed. The pilot is informing the government’s drive to clean, integrate, and reconcile data across ministries and agencies. And it’s accelerating the wider adoption of digital ID, a considerable task in a country of more than 280 million people.
The same capabilities that make social aid more effective can improve other areas of government too. They can help design better subsidy schemes for farmers, strengthen access to health services or improve support for small businesses. They can help the government allocate resources where they will have the greatest impact.
Ultimately, AI will have the greatest impact if it is connected to the hard work of reform: better data, safe and trusted digital infrastructure, and leaders willing to redesign old processes around the citizen. Technology can accelerate change but it cannot substitute leadership and political will. Across the world my institute tracks practical applications of digital technology and AI in government and the list is growing quickly. Countries that benefit most will be those that connect technology to delivery.
Indonesia has surprised me many times over the past two decades. On this visit, what impressed me was not only the country’s big ambitions, but the growing understanding of the scale and pace of change required to reimagine the state for this new age, and the role of technology in that change.
Indonesia has a huge opportunity. If it can accelerate its use of technology and continue to reimagine what the state can do for its citizens, it will not just make things better for Indonesians, it will offer a model for the rest of the world to learn from.
This article was originally published in the The Jakarta Post on 8 July 2026.