Baseer and Makkah Route Initiative — Saudi Arabia’s AI crowd management and biometric pilgrim services for Hajj

Saudi Arabia's annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the world's largest mass gatherings attracting 1.5-2 million international pilgrims, has become a testbed for government AI deployment at extraordinary scale.

Baseer and companion platforms manage real-time crowd safety across the holy sites, while the Makkah Route Initiative streamlines pilgrim immigration and biometric processing before departure.

Baseer, developed jointly by the Ministry of Interior and the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), uses thermal imaging and AI-driven analytics to track more than one million worshippers a day and predict crowd surges. Sawaher and Sawaher Qiyada analyse feeds from thousands of security cameras across 75 SDAIA-supported sites; in 2026 the system processed satellite imagery across 31 locations and generated over 50% of environmental safety alerts autonomously. The Makkah Route Initiative, first piloted around 2019, provides biometric single-window visa, customs and health-screening services at 11 international airports across 7 countries.

Reported outcomes from Hajj 2026 include a 44% decline in violators and deportees, a 12% reduction in fake Hajj campaigns, and a 33% drop in residency and border-related offences compared with the previous year. More than 2.5 million medical care interactions were supported during the season.

Emergency response has shifted from reactive to proactive safety management through predictive analytics, but the specific AI contribution cannot be disaggregated from personnel increases or other policy changes, and no independent third-party evaluation of the systems has been published.