AI is changing pilgrims’ journeys, but sacred journeys have always adapted to new technology

Two religion scholars walked Japan's Kumano Kodō trail in 2025 with an AI assistant trained to translate and guide, then wrote up the experience for an academic journal as a test case for pilgrimage's digital future.

The essay traces a long lineage: Roman-era travel guides, a 1486 printed guidebook to the Holy Land reprinted a dozen times, steamships that shortened the Hajj, and now smartphone apps offering augmented reality at Mecca. Each technology, the piece argues, removed uncertainty from journeys once defined by uncertainty.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.