JAKARTA — Governments in Asia's poorer countries are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence to tackle complex administrative challenges, from legal backlogs to inefficient welfare distribution.
Indonesia, with 287 million people spread across 13,500 islands, contends with 251,232 laws and regulations. A pilot project in Banyuwangi, a port town in eastern Java, used AI to analyze government databases and verify recipients for a food-assistance program that currently reaches less than 50 percent of its intended beneficiaries, according to the SMERU Research Institute. The AI system reduced registration time from an average of 75-200 days to less than one day, a government-commissioned study found. Indonesia plans to roll out the system nationwide by year's end.
The World Bank argues that AI adapted to developing economies could enable countries to achieve in a decade what might take a century. "The biggest gains from AI may come from helping governments make better predictions," said Indermit Gill, the World Bank's chief economist.
In Pakistan, where courts face a backlog exceeding 2 million cases, trial-court judges received access to JudgeGPT in 2024. The generative AI assistant, grounded in Pakistani statutes and court judgments, helps judges with legal research, summarization and drafting. Judges using JudgeGPT cleared approximately 6.3 percent more cases annually without an increase in appeal rates, indicating consistent quality.
India, facing an even larger legal backlog, has seen startups deploy AI tools. Adalat AI has rolled out transcription and document-processing software that the company claims has reduced case times by 30-50 percent across 11 states. In agriculture, a recent study in Telangana found that AI-enhanced monsoon forecasts helped farmers save up to 42,000 rupees ($560) in a single cropping season—equivalent to three months of the region's minimum wage.
Wider AI adoption across poorer Asian countries poses significant risks. UN economists reported that millions of jobs across the Asia-Pacific region could be at risk as AI adoption surges in wealthier nations, potentially exacerbating global inequality.
A UN economist noted that nations without robust data registries cannot fully leverage AI's potential. Only about 40 percent of women in South Asia have access to the internet on cell phones, limiting AI's reach for information and assistance.
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific identified shortages in AI-related skills as the largest barrier to wider adoption, followed by high infrastructure costs and fragmented data systems. A forthcoming UN report on artificial intelligence and law will emphasize that while AI can enhance efficiency, it also presents serious risks if not grounded in ethics and human rights.
