Wimbledon adds IBM AI tools for live match coverage

The All England Lawn Tennis Club is adding new AI-powered features to Wimbledon’s digital platforms through its ongoing work with IBM. The updates will be available through the Wimbledon app and wimbledon.com as first-round matches begin on Monday. They include an upgraded Match Chat assistant and a new feature called Key Moments. The features will also be available through IBM Slamtracker, which is accessible on the Wimbledon app and wimbledon.com. CIO.inc reported that about 730 million people engaged with Wimbledon last year, generating 18 billion impressions across digital channels, according to comments from AELTC during an IBM media panel. IBM said its work with Wimbledon forms part of a five-year digital transformation project focused on modernising the digital platform, bringing critical services and data back in house, and reducing technical debt and cost of ownership. IBM said the work is intended to enable an AI operating model and increase the productivity of the Wimbledon team. Match coverage gets AI tools Match Chat allows fans to ask questions about a match in natural language. A user can ask what has happened so far in a match and receive a conversational response based on live data, analysis, and historical performance information. Some Match Chat responses will include photos and video where relevant. IBM said the feature lets users ask questions without searching through statistics or moving between multiple screens during a match. IBM said Match Chat is built on watsonx Orchestrate and uses AI agents and models trained on Wimbledon’s editorial style and tennis terminology. The assistant uses live match data, analysis, and historical performance information, with some responses including relevant photos and video. A 2025 technical paper on Match Chat reported that earlier deployments at Wimbledon and the US Open served about 1 million users, with an average response time of 6.25 seconds. The 2026 version adds expanded data sources and selected responses with photos and video, according to IBM. The new Key Moments feature identifies points and passages of play that influence the direction of a match. It explains pivotal plays and changes in momentum using AI-generated analysis. Key Moments builds on Wimbledon’s existing Likelihood to Win feature. That tool calculates each player’s probability of winning throughout a match by using current and historical statistics, expert input, and match momentum. IBM said Live Likelihood to Win combines scoring data, match statistics, and expert analysis into continuously updated win probabilities for every singles match. Key Moments builds on that system by identifying points and passages of play that affect the direction of a match. Key Moments will be available for each gentlemen’s and ladies’ singles match. IBM said the feature is intended to explain which plays influence the direction of a match and why, rather than only showing selected points. IBM said Key Moments can identify examples such as long rallies or double faults when they affect match momentum or win probability. Inside Wimbledon’s platform rebuild The digital updates follow a broader modernisation of Wimbledon’s app and website. As part of that work, Wimbledon’s content archive was moved to a new architecture covering more than 15,000 digital assets. The archive includes articles, videos, photographs, and metadata links used across Wimbledon’s digital services. IBM said the platform uses watsonx Orchestrate for AI agents, IBM Bob for development work, and watsonx.data to manage data across hybrid cloud infrastructure. The redesigned app and website were also built around research into how fans, players, broadcasters, media, and other groups use Wimbledon’s digital services. IBM Bob was used to build a knowledge graph mapping relationships across Wimbledon’s archive and to support AI-driven workflows for the new platform. Computer Weekly reported that the tool examined around 15,000 online assets and learned how articles, photos, videos, and metadata were connected. IBM said the archive mapping work, which it said could traditionally require four to five IBM specialists working for months, was completed by one engineer within four weeks. The targeted 15,000 assets were extracted in 47 minutes, although IBM noted that response times can vary depending on technical conditions. Computer Weekly also reported that IBM Bob helped complete what was described as 10 years of development work in nine months during the rebuild of Wimbledon’s app, website, and content systems before The Championships 2026. Controls, engagement, and history CIO.inc reported that IBM and Wimbledon are also using governance controls for the AI features. The report said the design includes human-led processes, explainability, confidence scoring, and checks intended to reduce inaccurate outputs during live use. Insider Sport separately reported that IBM Consulting pointed to a watsonx governance layer across the features, with transparency measures and confidence scores attached to the underlying data. AELTC reported a 16% year-on-year increase in engagement across all platforms in 2025 and a 39% rise in myWIMBLEDON registrations over the past year. IBM and the All England Club have worked together for more than 35 years. Their partnership has covered Wimbledon’s website, mobile app, and AI-powered digital services. IBM said the partnership has included the launch of the Wimbledon website in 1995, the mobile app in 2009, and the first integration of enhanced AI-powered solutions in 2017. 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