Saudi Arabia’s new initiative

Saudi Arabia is preparing to start using AI in airports in its country. Through which airport staff can be reduced in passport and airport checkpoints and AI can be used for checking.

Along with this, Major General Saleh Al-Murabba, Acting Director General of the Passport Department, announced at the Digital Government Forum 2025 held in Riyadh that the directorate will soon launch a self-deportation platform, through which people living illegally in Saudi Arabia will be able to complete the process of leaving the country online.

He also announced a smart track system, which will verify the identity of passengers using smart cameras and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This could eliminate the need for regular passport control staff at checkpoints. This will also make it easier for people with the help of AI.

Self-Deportation Platform

The Self-Deportation Platform is an online portal designed to replace the old, paper-based and manual deportation processes. According to the announcement, as soon as security and technical preparations are completed, persons violating residence, labor or border rules will be able to go to this platform and complete all the documents related to their travel and complete the process of leaving the country without any personal procedure.

This step will simplify and transform the time-consuming administrative work into a secure digital system. The platform will be launched very soon after the technical and security checks are completed, although no specific public date has been announced.

Smart Track is a system designed for travel centers which will prove to be very beneficial for the people. It checks identities using smart cameras and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is said that it can verify the identity of 35 people simultaneously.

With this system, the processing of passengers can be completed without the presence of any personal passport control officer. Besides, this will also speed up the work of identifying people. The system aims to speed up the movement of passengers by automatically checking their identity at the airport and other checkpoints and cross-verifying them with security databases.

Along with this, two major technological advancements are being introduced for passengers passing through the state’s ports, which aim to eliminate long queues and long waiting times.

Digital twins will also be launched

The head of the Passport Department said that a new technology called Digital Twins is being introduced, which works on the basis of models and data. Its purpose will be to observe crowd movements at the airport, measure the waiting time of passengers during passport check and also to check whether the passengers are safe with the airport service or not.

He told that this technique has been successfully tried in Hajj season 1445 Hijri (2024).

digital passport

Major General Al-Murabba said that the digital passport is currently available on the Abshar platform, thereby simplifying international travel processes. He also said that work is underway to finalize international agreements between Saudi Arabia and other countries so that the use of digital passports can be further increased.

He also informed that smart voice agent service has been started, which assists users 24 hours without the intervention of any employee. He said, any person can avail this service by calling number 992.