Ibtesam Gul
A speaking robot that converses in 69 languages is now running at one of the Kingdom’s largest land-entry reception centres, giving pilgrims answers in their own language before they travel on to Makkah.
As millions of Muslims prepare for Hajj 1447 (2026), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has changed how it receives pilgrims arriving by road. At the Guests of the Merciful Service Centre in Al-Kharj, a multilingual AI robot now greets land-route arrivals in their native language without a human interpreter in sight.
Engineer Osama Al-Shumaimri introduced the robot, which works from a pre-loaded database to answer the questions pilgrims tend to ask first: how to complete entry procedures, what happens at the reception centre, and how to move on toward Masjid al-Haram. With 69 languages covered, it reaches pilgrims from West Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and beyond, communities that often arrive speaking neither Arabic nor English.
The centre itself is large. The Guests of the Merciful Service Centre spans more than 50,000 square metres and handles up to 35,000 pilgrims at once. It sits at a main land corridor into Makkah, so for pilgrims travelling overland, it is often the first official stop inside the Kingdom. During peak arrival days, the mix of nationalities and languages flowing through creates genuine coordination challenges, which is the gap the robot is built to fill.
A Different Tool for a Different Moment
Saudi Arabia has used AI robots at pilgrimage sites before. An earlier system called Manara 2 was deployed at the Grand Mosque in Mecca to assist Umrah visitors. That robot handled religious questions, Sharia rulings, Umrah rituals, Tawaf, Sa’i and could connect pilgrims to senior scholars via live video when a question went beyond its database. It was launched under Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais.
The Al-Kharj robot does something different. It is not there for religious guidance. It handles the first practical moments of arrival: where to go, what to do and how the process works. One system manages the spiritual questions; the other handles the logistical ones. Together, they show how Saudi authorities are applying AI at different stages of the pilgrimage journey rather than trying to build one machine that does everything.
The Language Problem Is Real
Pilgrims come from more than 180 countries. Arabic and English handle a lot of communication, but many pilgrims, especially older ones or those from rural areas, arrive speaking only their mother tongue. Staffing reception centres with human interpreters fluent in dozens of languages is not realistic at the volumes Hajj produces.
The robot answers this directly. It responds in the native language of a pilgrim who is asking the question. And it answers immediately from a database built for common arrival questions. That cuts wait times and takes pressure off human staff, who can focus on situations that actually need a person.
Technology at the Gates of Makkah
The Al-Kharj robot is part of a longer push by Saudi Arabia to use technology to manage the affairs of the Hajj season at scale. Saudi arab has been rolling out digital crowd tracking, streamlined permit systems, and electronic guidance tools under its Vision 2030 program. A multilingual robot at a land-entry centre is not a dramatic headline, but for a pilgrim who has just crossed a border after a long overland journey and needs to know what happens next, being answered in their own language is the kind of practical help that actually matters.
Hajj 2026 is expected to draw pilgrims from across the globe. For those arriving by road through Al-Kharj, the first voice they hear may be a robot’s, and it will speak their language.
The Guests of the Merciful Service Centre in Al-Kharj is one of Saudi Arabia’s primary reception hubs for pilgrims entering the Kingdom by land ahead of Hajj 2026.
