IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club have forged a partnership to introduce an innovative new feature for the Wimbledon digital experience. This feature will leverage match data and generative AI from IBM’s AI and data platform, WatsonX, to deliver personalised player stories to fans as the tournament unfolds.
Named ‘Catch Me Up’, this new feature will present pre- and post-match player cards containing AI-generated player stories and analysis via wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 App. These player cards will be tailored based on user preferences and data such as their location and myWimbledon profile, starting with their favourite players. Pre-match content will encompass analysis of recent performance and likelihood to win predictions, while post-match stories will highlight key statistics and highlights. Additionally, ‘Catch Me Up’ will provide longer-form daily summaries of the matches.
‘Catch Me Up’ was created using IBM’s Granite large language model (LLM) to produce AI-generated text, and it was trained on the Wimbledon editorial style. IBM and The All England Club will closely monitor the model to ensure quality and accuracy. The aim of this feature is to enable Wimbledon to expand its content for both new and existing tennis fans globally, offering timely, curated coverage across ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches which often take place simultaneously.
Moreover, Wimbledon will utilise generative AI to cover a wider range of matches, including wheelchair events, to cater to its diverse international audience. This will be integrated into a redesigned digital match centre, known as IBM Slamtracker, available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. With the use of generative AI from WatsonX, IBM Slamtracker has been improved to provide concise match previews and post-match reviews for ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches.
The introduction of this new feature coincides with new research from IBM and Morning Consult, which reveals that the majority of UAE tennis fans believe that technology will have a significantly positive impact on various aspects of the sport – for fans, coaches, and players alike.
According to the research, 81% of tennis fans in the UAE are optimistic about the positive impact of technology on the advancement of fan engagement. Moreover, 88% of tennis fan respondents in the UAE think technology will have a positive impact on the advancement of training, game strategy, coaching, and talent identification and acquisitions.
The study also found that sports fans in the UAE use at least two devices simultaneously to consume sports, with 25% using two devices at the same time when watching sports, exceeding the global average of 22%. Additionally, 10% of sports fans aged between 18-29 in the UAE use three or more devices at once when watching sports.
Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for IBM, expressed his enthusiasm for the new Catch Me Up feature, highlighting how generative AI can be utilised to deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale. He also emphasised that the positive impact of technologies such as generative AI on digital experiences is becoming increasingly clear to fans. Adashek further added that IBM is committed to making these technologies available to clients across various sectors to address their unique business needs.
In conclusion, the collaboration between IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club signifies a new era of tennis storytelling, where technology and data converge to enhance fan engagement and provide a more immersive digital experience for tennis enthusiasts worldwide.