As Wimbledon fever grips the world, a Generative AI-powered tool will help fans across the globe to stay up to date with personalized player stories. The All England Lawn Tennis Club, also known as the All England Club where the Wimbledon championship is held, has expanded its three-decade long partnership with IBM to further leverage GenAI.
The tech giant’s partnership with the All-England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has driven digital transformation at Wimbledon for more than 30 years. This year, we will witness a new feature for the Wimbledon digital experience that will leverage 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 advance through The Championships.
The new ‘Catch Me Up’ feature displays pre and post-match player cards with AI-generated player stories and analysis via wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 App. Player cards will be personalised based on user preferences and data such as their location and myWimbledon profile, starting with their favourite players. Pre-match content will include analysis of recent performance and likelihood to win predictions, and post-match it will include key statistics and highlights. The feature will also create longer-form daily summaries of play.
‘Catch Me Up’ was built using IBM’s Granite large language model (LLM) to provide AI-generated text using the capabilities of the watsonx platform. The model has been trained on the Wimbledon editorial style and will be monitored by the All England Club. The new feature is designed to help Wimbledon scale its content to both new and existing tennis fans globally, as well as provide fans access to timelier, curated coverage across ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches which are often happening simultaneously.
This year, Wimbledon will also use generative AI to provide coverage of a broader range of matches than was previously available, including wheelchair events, to offer more to Wimbledon’s diverse international audience. This will form part of a redesigned digital match centre, known as IBM Slamtracker, available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. Using generative AI built from watsonx, IBM Slamtracker has been enhanced to provide bullet point-based match previews and post-match reviews for ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches.
“We are committed to offering fans the highest quality Wimbledon experience, whether it’s in person or digitally. Generative AI allows us to scale our ability to provide different types of content for fans wherever they are in the world in a way that’s personalised for them. This year’s new Catch Me Up feature will make it easier for fans to follow the key storylines as they emerge throughout The Championships.”
Chris Clements, Digital Products Lead at the All England Club,
“The new Catch Me Up feature is an exciting example of how we can use the power of generative AI to deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale. For 35 years, IBM and Wimbledon have been co-creating solutions that make fans feel more connected to all the on-court action, and our new research confirms they are beginning to understand the positive impact technologies such as generative AI can have on their digital experiences…”
Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for IBM
