Baseer and Sawaher: AI Crowd-Management Platforms for the Hajj

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), working with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, operates Baseer and Sawaher: computer-vision platforms that process live feeds from more than 5,000 cameras across roughly 80 locations in and around Mecca's Grand Mosque precinct. Sixteen AI algorithms feed 31 monitoring dashboards, staffed by over 600 operators, to estimate real-time crowd density and flow, forecast congestion before it becomes dangerous, automatically flag incidents such as a collapsed pilgrim or an unattended object, and support facial-recognition identity checks against pilgrim visa records at checkpoints.

The government reports the system monitored more than 1.5 million international pilgrims during the 2026 Hajj season, building on a rollout that began around 2019 and expanded significantly for the 2024-2026 seasons. State press releases describe the platform as central to crowd-flow planning across an event that briefly concentrates several million people in a fixed space.

Independent scrutiny is more cautious. SMEX, a regional digital-rights organisation, has questioned how pilgrims — photographed and biometrically checked in dense religious crowds — can meaningfully consent to surveillance and how their data is subsequently used and retained. Investment in crowd-monitoring technology has also not eliminated the underlying safety risk: the 2024 Hajj season recorded more than 1,300 heat-related deaths, showing that AI-based monitoring is, at best, one layer in a much larger public-safety challenge rather than a solved problem.

Read the full analysis: https://smex.org/artificial-intelligence-during-hajj-how-safe-is-pilgrims-data/