Bridging the digital divide: how generative AI-powered digital platforms enhance e-government service delivery

Abstract The promise of e-government to deliver efficient public services in developing nations is often hindered by significant challenges of scale and population diversity. In a country like India, vast linguistic, cultural, and literacy divides create a persistent information gap, preventing marginalized citizens from accessing vital welfare schemes despite the move towards ‘Government-as-a-Platform’ (GaaP) models. We study how Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Generative AI, embedded in a GaaP model augments a platform’s matchmaker role to overcome these frictions. Using an in-depth case study of India’s People Empowerment Platform, built by Axis My India, we theorize and show how AI-platform with multilingual, and multimodal capabilities increase awareness and comprehension, improving uptake of welfare and other government schemes among marginalized citizens. Our findings provide conceptual model and empirical insights, demonstrating AI’s transformative role, and offering significant theoretical contributions to AI and platform literature and providing actionable insights for policymakers and technologists aiming to bridge the digital divide.