MyGOV’s AI chatbot is back, almost a year after the original chatbot was shut down for providing inaccurate and nonsensical answers.
When we tested the original MyGOV Beta AI Chat in August 2025, it made several factual mistakes. It described Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil as a former Johor Menteri Besar and Batu Pahat MP, while Digital Ministry Secretary General Fabian Bigar was described as a famous Filipino actor and model. The AI Chat feature was subsequently disabled on the same day due to obvious reasons.
This time, the government says MyGOV is being enhanced with Agentic AI, which is supposed to do more than just answer questions.
As reported by Bernama, the Digital Ministry said the Agentic AI capability entered beta testing in early August. It is designed to understand context, plan appropriate actions and assist users with tasks across multiple digital government services.
For example, if a user who wants to pay a police summons shouldn’t need to know which government platform to use. The AI could identify the relevant service, guide the user to the payment menu and assist them until the transaction is completed.
MyGOV AI can now retrieve your personal government records
The biggest improvement is that MyGOV AI isn’t merely answering questions. It can retrieve selected government records associated with your identity.
When you launch the updated AI Chat, the MyGOV app asks for permission to use your identification card number to perform checks with relevant agencies. It says the information will only be used for the requested checks and won’t be stored by the application.
By default, it suggests a few queries such as checking your road tax or unclaimed monies.
When we asked “Semak saman JPJ saya”, the MyGOV AI chatbot understood the request, checked our JPJ record and returned the result directly in the conversation. We then asked it to check our PDRM summons and it performed the corresponding check as well.
So far so good and it makes it easier to give users results without tapping thru the individual subsections within the MyGOV app.
It also worked well when we asked “Semak tarikh luput passport”. Instead of telling us where to check, MyGOV retrieved our actual passport status and expiry date. It even displayed our Status Perjalanan (SSPI) to indicate whether there are restrictions on travelling abroad.
Another useful example is “Wang Tak Dituntut” for unclaimed monies. It is able to display a list of unclaimed money records which included details including the organisation, year and amount.
Essentially, you can just describe what you want in natural language and MyGOV can identify, access a supported service and pull the records on your behalf.
However, most of what we’ve successfully tested so far involves retrieving information from a specific service.
MyGOV AI still can’t answer some basic government questions
Despite the improvements, there are still some obvious gaps which urgently needs addressing if MyGOV intends to be the one stop centre to provide accurate answers to government-related matters.
Firstly, we asked about the renewal fee of the new 10-year passport and interestingly it wasn’t aware that the longer 10-year passport existed. It responding saying that the Malaysian passport is only valid for 5 years and provided the renewal fees for all categories.
When we asked how much is it to renew a driver’s licence, it said the specific Competent Driving Licence (CDL) renewal fee wasn’t available in its database. At least, it acknowledged its limitations and directed us to JPJ to find out more.
We also tried asking for our remaining balance of the RM100 SARA cash aid. The chatbot could explain how SARA works and what items can be purchased, but it couldn’t retrieve our actual balance. At least, it correctly directed us to the MyKasih portal.
When it comes to fuel prices, it managed to list out the current retail price for unsubsidised RON95, RON97 and Diesel. For eligible Malaysians, it also displayed the BUD95 price of RM1.99 per litre.
Similarly, when asked how much BUDI assistance is provided to e-hailing drivers, it said it didn’t have specific information and provided a BUDI95 contact email instead.
More concerning is that it wasn’t aware that Budi Diesel was a thing. MyGOV responded that BUDI doesn’t cover diesel and is only available for RON95 under BUDI95. It said consumers in Peninsular Malaysia had to pay RM4.57 per litre for diesel while East Malaysians have to pay RM2.15 per litre.
While the chatbot now managed to provide correct information about ministers, there are some limitations. It couldn’t provide answers when we asked who’s the speaker in Parliament but at least, it directed us to Parliament’s website for more info.
The chatbot also couldn’t provide the recent Negeri Sembilan state election results, instead giving information about the current Menteri Besar and directing users to the Election Commission website. However, it got the name of the current Menteri Besar wrong, as it mentions YAB Dato Seri Utama Haji Aminuddin bin Harun, instead of Ismail Lasim.
It is also worth highlighting that MyGOV clearly labels AI Chat as a Beta Release and warns that it may make mistakes and that users should verify its answers with official sources.
MyGOV AI is better, but there’s still room for improvement
Compared to the chatbot that was taken offline last year, the new MyGOV AI Chat is still an improvement.
The ability to ask about your summons, passport or unclaimed money and retrieve actual records through a conversation shows the potential of having MyGOV as a single digital gateway for government services.
However, retrieving information through natural language isn’t quite the same as having a fully agentic experience. The real test will be whether MyGOV AI can take a broader request, determine which government services are required and guide the user through multiple steps or complete a transaction where authorised. This is of course subject to the level of integration with the respective ministries which will be a long road ahead.
More importantly, factual accuracy still needs work especially for the recent announcements such as BUDI Diesel and the 10-year passport option. If MyGOV is supposed to make government services easier to access and to provide the latest and most accurate information to citizens, it shouldn’t get basic information about government programmes wrong.
MyGOV AI Chat has come a long way since last year’s disastrous debut, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
0 comments :
Post a Comment