Accelerating Digital Transformation in Umrah: The Role of AI in Building a Safer and More Connected Pilgrim Journey

Umrah pilgrimage, which is an important religious trip to millions of Muslims each year, poses great crowd control and health, security, and service requirements. In the post-pandemic period, safer, smarter and more networked pilgrim experiences among pilgrims has increased the rate of digital improvements in major pilgrimage destinations such as Makkah and Madinah. The artificial intelligence known as AI is becoming a gamechanger in redesigning the Umrah logistics, improving safety guidelines and streamlining the entire pilgrimage experience of the end user. This paper discusses how the Umrah journey is changing through AI technologies which include real-time surveillance systems, intelligent transport systems, predictive analytics, and health screening tools. Using 37 academic materials and including the research on the Big data framework, smart cities, and enhanced innovations of AI-driven public services and cultural peculiarities of pilgrimage, this work summarizes the global tendencies and localized examples of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and other regions. The results can be seen as indicating how AI is increasingly playing a constantly changing role in enabling efficient operation, personalising pilgrim services and developing resilient religious tourism ecosystems. It would suggest a strategic framework that will direct policy makers and other stakeholders to the incorporation of the AI that is inclusive, ethical and scalable. The paper will make contributions to the ever-emerging intelligent religious tourism through bringing together the technological development and the sacred aspects of the Umrah experience.