IBM and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) are significantly enhancing the digital experience for the 2025 US Open with new AI-powered features, following their long-term technology roadmap. These innovations aim to provide millions of tennis fans worldwide with customized and continuous coverage of the two-week Grand Slam event. A global survey commissioned by IBM and Morning Consult indicates that 86% of tennis fans value AI-powered features, particularly for real-time insights and personalized highlights.
Key new features include "Match Chat," an interactive AI assistant available for all 254 singles matches, which allows fans to ask questions about player stats, head-to-head records, match insights, and player pronunciations. Built with IBM watsonx Orchestrate technologies, including AI agents and large language models like IBM Granite, Match Chat provides real-time responses. Additionally, an improved "IBM SlamTracker" will offer live "Likelihood to Win" probabilities for every singles match, updating in near real-time based on AI analysis of player statistics, expert opinion, and match momentum. "AI Commentary" will also provide AI-generated audio and subtitles for highlight videos, while "Key Points" built with watsonx will create three-bullet summaries of articles, tournament data, and match analyses.
These AI-driven enhancements come as audience demand for dynamic digital content accelerates. The partnership between IBM and the USTA, which spans since 1990, leverages AI solutions to process over 7 million data points throughout the tournament, with each point generating 156 distinct data points. This data flows into the IBM Data Operations room, ensuring accuracy and comprehensiveness. The goal is to attract more users and increase engagement with the US Open app and website by delivering personalized content and insights.
