This Wimbledon, IBM WatsonX is Powering New Generative AI Feature for Personalised Player Stories at the Championship

The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is starting from 1st July. The oldest tennis tournament in the world is regarded by many as the most prestigious. The upcoming Wimbledon 2024 will be played over 14 days, starting from Monday, July 1, and concluding on Sunday, July 14. The schedule includes Gentlemen's and Ladies' Singles matches in the initial days, followed by Doubles and Mixed Doubles events.

This year, IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club have introduced a fascinating new feature for the Wimbledon digital experience: "Catch Me Up." This innovative tool leverages match data with generative AI from IBM's AI and data platform, watsonx, to keep fans updated on the world's leading players as they progress through The Championships. Here's how it works:

• Personalized Player Cards: The "Catch Me Up" feature displays pre and post-match player cards on wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 App. These cards are tailored based on user preferences and data, including location and myWimbledon profile. They start with users' favorite players.
• Pre-Match Insights: Before matches, the feature provides analysis of recent player performance and likelihood-to-win predictions.
• Post-Match Highlights: After matches, the player cards include key statistics and highlights.

Additionally, "Catch Me Up" creates longer-form daily summaries of play, enhancing the overall fan experience.

The announcement comes as new research from IBM and Morning Consult reveals that 55% of global tennis fans surveyed think AI will have a positive impact on sports. When considering how generative AI could improve their experience, these respondents prioritised real-time updates (36%), personalised content (31%), and unique insights (30%).

Approximately one-third (31%) of global tennis fans surveyed use multiple devices while watching sporting events, primarily to get more information, watch multiple matches at the same time, and interact with other fans. In addition, nearly half (47%) of them engage with additional content on tennis daily or weekly and rank summarisation and personalisation as the two most important features of sports content.

The underlying technology behind this feature is IBM's Granite Large Language Model (LLM), which generates AI-driven text using the capabilities of the watsonx platform. It has been trained on the Wimbledon editorial style and will be monitored by the All England Club.

This year, Wimbledon is also expanding its coverage using generative AI to include a broader range of matches, including wheelchair events, to cater to its diverse international audience. The redesigned digital match center, known as IBM Slamtracker, will offer bullet point-based match previews and post-match reviews for both ladies' and gentlemen's singles matches on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com

To recall, in this year's French Open Tennis Tournament dubbed as Roland-Garros 2024, the Indian IT giant Infosys partnered with the French Tennis Federation to introduce several AI-first innovations, marking a significant evolution in their sixth year of collaboration. Infosys also partnered with Tennis Australia at the 2024 Australian Open (AO) to bring generative AI technologies for fan engagement, player performance, and digital content creation.

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