GiveDirectly partnered with Bangladesh’s government to pilot MobileAid, an AI-driven method using anonymized mobile phone data to identify low-income households quickly and cost-effectively. The approach outperformed community targeting and rivaled traditional surveys, enabling faster, cheaper poverty relief through mobile money transfers. Challenges for scaling include regulatory approvals, telecom cooperation, and building trust, highlighting the need for combining technology with community outreach. MobileAid shows strong potential for rapid social protection, especially in disaster response, by providing timely, accurate targeting aligned with real-world needs.