DigiLocker getting an AI assistant: How will it help you?
What's the story
The Indian government is planning to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) agent for DigiLocker, its cloud-based platform for storing and verifying official digital documents. The proposed AI will be capable of independently responding to document requests, validating them, and triggering approved actions. This move comes as part of the government's efforts to improve efficiency and user experience in accessing official documents like driver's licenses, school certificates, and Aadhaar cards.
Functionality
AI agent to understand user commands and execute tasks
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said the AI agent will be capable of understanding user commands, planning a sequence of tasks, calling DigiLocker APIs, verifying results, and completing government-approved actions. The AI is also expected to be designed in such a way that developers outside the government can plug it into their own apps for broader ecosystem use.
Security measures
Safeguards and audit trails for AI agents
To prevent misuse, the government has mandated that irreversible steps such as document issuance/sharing must include human approval. The AI agents are also required to maintain a complete audit trails, access logs, and traceable decision histories. The ministry has stressed the need to install "fallback mechanisms, error handling and escalation to human operators," which is a major departure from consumer AI tools that operate without mandatory human checks.
Reusability
DigiLocker agent to serve as template for other ministries
The DigiLocker agent will serve as a template for other ministries, and have reusable platform components. The National eGovernance Division, an autonomous body under the IT ministry, wants this project to evolve into a reusable model. The development of the DigiLocker agent will be done by AI specialists empaneled under a new rate-discovery mechanism.