All aspects of business, physical and digital security, and management operations are increasingly classified as smart.
For security, that typically means any software that controls and supports the monitoring of access control and CCTV systems. But in the AI age, advanced access control takes that smartness to a new level through live analysis tools and integration with wider systems.
Access becomes more important in large-scale projects where there are less room and time for traditional inspection methods. Take the latest Gulf Coast mega projects, such as the Saudi’s Neom project including the Oxagon floating industrial city, Dubai’s Expo City, or Diriyah Gate also in Saudi. These are just a few of the many large-scale industrial zones that are emerging to drive 21st-century business, all requiring the latest in advanced AI-based systems and access control.
These complex projects are huge ecosystems of raw materials, with workers, plants and other assets feeding into giant construction zones with associated logistics and critical infrastructure, increasingly backed up by smart‑city technologies.
In these environments access control plays a key part in ensuring smooth and timely operations, going way beyond the traditional security and gatekeeping feature. Acting as the operational backbone of a project, access controlmonitors individual entry and egress through ID cards or smartphone apps.
Vehicle access, goods and raw materials related to each lorry or delivery vehicle are tracked by license plate recognition, RFID and other sensors, along with entire teams of workers and their equipment.
Image: EM’s FP | Reworked by GBN internal team
Management involves all aspects of the working day from smart parking systems to prevent blockages and delays, building access for authorised personnel only, restricted access to stores and sensitive areas such as warehouses, computer rooms, data centres, airside or dockside, and other critical zones.
Managing large-scale workforces
As stated in NEOM’s official update of April 14, 2024, the construction workforce was expected to rise from more than 140,000 to over 200,000 by 2025. With further development phases currently in progress, staffing levels are believed to have increased beyond those earlier projections.
Managing worksites of this scale, involving very large, multi-zone workforces, requires strong access control systems to ensure personnel remain in authorized locations for operational efficiency, health and safety, and overall security.
From preventing bottlenecks during the start of the working day to reducing the risk of worker fraud, supply mispurposing or theft, and other issues, access control helps maintain order through smart badges and a range of access control technologies.
Access point readers, CCTV cameras, RFID sensors, and related technologies are widely used to support access authorization, emergency preparedness, and site-wide safety coordination across large and complex projects. These systems help automate headcounts during evacuations, identify congestion points, and ensure that only properly equipped and trained personnel enter restricted or high-risk areas.
When implemented in line with applicable labor regulations and data-protection frameworks, such systems are designed to support health and safety compliance, operational coordination, and emergency response, rather than to enable intrusive personal monitoring or disciplinary surveillance of individual workers.
Image: EM’s FP | Reworked by GBN internal team
Helping managers with their safety and compliance goals, they are kept up to date with live information on site utilization, attendance patterns, and resource deployment, all without the need for rafts of paperwork.
The smarter features of AI enable greater automation at access points, predictive insights into potential security and access risks, such as repeated access failures or congestion at restricted zones. AI also supports the unified security team trying to manage overall access and safety by providing advice based on the statistics and live insights into emerging situations.
They can be simple, with busloads of workers sent to the wrong gate. To complex issues, such as the arrival of VIP visitors, or where materials get lost between control points, or subcontractors appear for work on a sub-project that is not ready for them, requiring safe rerouting.
Access control in the smart city age
As these smart cities and projects rise and top out, they come with access control infrastructure built-in across residences, public transport and amenities, and offices or workplaces. The move to smart access provides public safety, deters crime and supports city management and emergency functions.
Image: EM’s FP | Reworked by GBN internal team
For example, in densely populated buildings, smart access control can check every person has left the building during a fire alarm or a real emergency, while analytics can identify choke points or areas where people struggle to get out, improving design and emergency management instructions.
And at smart airports, passengers will have less time to wait before moving between check-in and gates as operators utilise smart technology to improve passenger movements and work around delays or other issues.
Wherever you are in the Gulf Cooperation Councilregion, be it at a work-in-progress project or enjoying the benefits of a new-build and exciting destination, access control will play a key role in delivering improved security, speedier access and other benefits across the area.
