Politics, Governance, and Society in the Artificial Intelligence Era: Reflections and Lessons from the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election

The 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election constituted the first significant testbed for the deployment of generative artificial intelligence (AI) within the national political landscape. This paper presents a critical examination of AI utilization during the electoral process, analyzing its actual impacts on political discourse, institutional governance, and societal dynamics, while extracting salient lessons for the future of digital democracy in Indonesia. Employing a qualitative methodology that synthesizes post-election research, media analysis, and scholarly literature, this study identifies three principal manifestations of AI in the 2024 election: the emergence of novel campaign communication modalities (exemplified by the iconic "gemoy" imagery), the facilitation of sophisticated micro-targeting mechanisms, and the weaponization of disinformation through deepfake dissemination. Empirical evidence from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI) demonstrates that while the majority of voters (60-75%) successfully identified synthetic content, a statistically significant minority (14.5-28%, depending on content type) remained susceptible to manipulation, thereby revealing AI's potential to exacerbate partisan polarization. This paper argues that, despite AI's pervasive deployment in the 2024 electoral cycle, its impact did not fundamentally reconfigure the campaign landscape, which remains dominated by conventional media-political economic structures, yet the experience exposed critical vulnerabilities in public digital literacy and existing regulatory frameworks. The 2024 election thus functions as a crucial early warning system. In conclusion, this research reaffirms the imperative necessity of establishing a comprehensive AI governance framework encompassing adaptive regulation, platform accountability mechanisms, and nationwide digital literacy initiatives to fortify electoral integrity in future contests.