IBM and Wimbledon to elevate digital fan experience with AI technology

In a bid to enrich the fan experience, IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club have unveiled new features set to launch at this year’s Wimbledon Championships.

Key among these is a novel artificial intelligence (AI) feature from IBM watsonx, set to provide AI-generated tennis commentary for all video highlights packages during the tournament. In a first for tennis, the IBM AI Draw Analysis feature will also provide a unique statistic to gauge how favorable the path to the final might be for each player in the singles draw.

These new features mark a significant expansion of the digital tools available to fans on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. They illustrate how IBM and Wimbledon are utilizing technology to deepen fan engagement with The Championships.

Usama Al-Qassab — The All England Club Marketing and Commercial Director said: “We are constantly innovating with our partners at IBM to provide Wimbledon fans, wherever they are in the world, with an insightful and engaging digital experience of The Championships.

“This year, we’re introducing new features for our digital platforms that use the latest AI technology from IBM to help fans gain even more insight into the singles draw and access commentary on a wider variety of matches through our match highlights videos.”

IBM teams up with Wimbledon to enhance fan experience with AI-driven features. Photo courtesy of IBM.

The AI Commentary feature will enrich match highlights videos with audio commentary of key moments, complemented by optional captions. This tool is designed to offer fans a more insightful experience when catching up on key moments from matches via the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com.

This year’s introduction aims to enrich commentary access for matches outside Wimbledon’s Show Courts, which already enjoy live human commentary.

To develop this feature, experts from IBM iX worked with The All England Club, leveraging foundation models from watsonx, IBM’s enterprise AI and data platform, to train the AI in tennis-specific language. Generative AI built on these foundation models was used to create engaging and informative narration with varied sentence structure and vocabulary.

IBM’s AI Draw Analysis, another new feature, offers the first statistic of its kind in tennis – it uses AI to estimate the potential favorability of each player’s path to the final in the singles draw.

Factors such as potential future match-ups and the player’s position relative to competitors determine a player’s draw favorability, which is represented by a rating along a scale. This new insight allows fans to detect potential anomalies and surprises in the singles draw, enhancing engagement and sparking debate in the fan community.

These new tools will add to the range of AI-powered digital features available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com, such as the IBM Power Index Leaderboard, IBM Match Insights, and Personalised Highlights Reels and Recommendations.

Using over 100,000 data points from every shot played across the tournament, analyzed by IBM’s Watson AI technology on IBM Cloud, these digital features are designed to make it easier for fans to understand which players to follow, how they compare to their opponents, and who’s likely to win, keeping fans engaged with personalized insights throughout the tournament.

Jonathan Adashek — IBM Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications said: “IBM is bringing new layers of insight and engagement to the 2023 Championships through the use of innovative new tools, powered by foundation models and generative AI from watsonx.

“We’ve seen first-hand how these technologies have the power to help major sporting events like Wimbledon to grow their audiences through outstanding digital experiences. The AI and data platform that IBM is using to create unique fan experiences for Wimbledon is the same technology that we’re using to drive business transformation with clients across all sectors and industries.”