This year Wimbledon – with technology partner IBM – is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to make it the most interactive tournament yet. Features include enhancing fan engagement, modernising officiating, and boosting player safety and analytics.
Here’s a comprehensive look:
1. “Catch Me Up” & Generative AI Highlights
Wimbledon’s “Catch Me Up” feature (Powered by IBM’s Watsonx) will deliver AI-generated match previews, player highlights, and daily summaries tailored to individual fans and will be continually updated throughout the tournament
AI also analyses live and archived video to automatically generate highlight reels and has recently started adding AI‐generated audio and text commentary to highlight clips
2. AI-Powered Draw & Match Insights
The IBM SlamTracker and Draw Analysis tools use AI to assess player momentum, projected draw difficulty (colour‑coded), head‑to‑head stats, and win probabilities, offering deeper insights than traditional rankings. On-screen “path to final” visualisations enable fans to explore outcomes across the draw in real time
3. “Match Chat” – An Interactive AI Companion
Debuting in 2025, Match Chat allows spectators to ask real-time questions – like shot speed, player positioning, and match stats – and get responses straight away
The same system will also support in-match coaching, now again permitted, by providing analytics directly to player boxes
Live Likelihood to Win – revamped from a previous version which forecast the match winner at the outset, this feature now updates after each point to predict the victor based on the players’ current form and performance
4. Electronic Line Calling: Hawk‑Eye AI
From 2025, all 18 match courts will replace about 300 human line judges with Sony‑backed Hawk‑Eye Live, using 12 calibrated cameras per court for ultra-accurate real-time calls. The system issues instant line decisions – within tenths of a second – removing challenges and maintaining match flow
5. AI for Player Safety & Abuse Monitoring
In an effort to filter out online threats and abuse towards players, Wimbledon employs an AI tool from Signify Group called Threat Matrix to scan social media (in 35 languages). Introduced to the tournament in 2024, it has already been instrumental in identifying harassment and initiating legal cases