IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club have unveiled enhancements to the Wimbledon digital fan experience for this year’s Championships.
One of the new features is the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered by IBM Watsonx generative AI technology. This innovative AI feature will generate tennis commentary for all video highlights packages during Wimbledon, providing fans with an enhanced viewing experience.
Additionally, IBM has introduced a groundbreaking statistic called IBM AI Draw Analysis, a first in the world of tennis. This feature employs AI to assess the favorability of each player’s path to the final in the singles draw, taking into account factors such as match-ups against potential opponents and position in the draw.
These additions expand the range of digital tools available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com, exemplifying how IBM and Wimbledon continue to utilize technology to foster deeper fan engagement with The Championships.
The AI Commentary Feature revolutionizes the way fans engage with match highlights videos. It provides audio commentary and captions for key moments, allowing users to toggle them on or off as desired.
The tool is designed to offer a more immersive experience when catching up on crucial moments from matches via the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. By introducing this feature, Wimbledon aims to bring exciting commentary to matches outside of the Show Courts, which already benefit from live human commentary.
Experts from IBM iX, the experience design partner within IBM Consulting, collaborated with The All England Club. They leveraged foundation models from IBM’s enterprise AI and data platform, Watsonx, to train the AI in the unique language of tennis.
IBM has created the IBM AI Draw Analysis feature. This groundbreaking statistic employs AI to assess the favorability of each player’s path to the final in the singles draw. Players’ draw favorability is indicated by a rating on a scale, considering factors such as potential future opponents and their position in the draw compared to competitors.
“The new features introduced will leverage the AI technology from IBM, enabling fans to gain even more insights into the singles draw and access commentary for a wider variety of matches through the match highlights videos on the Wimbledon platforms,” Usama Al-Qassab, Marketing & Commercial Director at The All England Club, said.
“IBM’s innovative tools, powered by Watsonx’s foundation models and generative AI, will bring enhanced insights and engagement to the 2023 Championships,” Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for IBM, said.
These features join the suite of AI-powered digital tools for fans available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. This suite includes the IBM Power Index Leaderboard, IBM Match Insights, and Personalized Highlights Reels and Recommendations. Leveraging IBM’s Watson AI technology on IBM Cloud, these features analyze over 100,000 data points from every shot played throughout the tennis tournament.
