IBM unveils AI-powered fan features for 2026 US Open

IBM has created a number of enhanced AI-powered fan features for USOpen.org and the US Open app for this year’s tournament.

Working with the United States Tennis Association (USTA), it has rolled out three AI-powered innovations designed to help fans experience the US Open in a more personalised way. 

IBM and the USTA have partnered together on digital experiences since 1992.

This year they’ve rolled out an all-new Live Updates homepage where fans can prioritise their favourite players and focus on the matches, insights and stories they care about most.

A new Serve Quality metric, which is available across all 254 singles matches, uses advanced limb-tracking technology developed with IBM Bob to help analyse the precise mechanics of every serve – with 21 data points across the body and racquet, tracked 50 times per second.

Everything from wrist flex and the transfer of energy from a player’s legs through their torso is captured, generating around 1.2 billion data points over the course of the tournament.

The continuous stream of live data — including efficiency, accuracy, consistency and ball toss — is managed by IBM Confluent. The result is a Serve Quality score generated in near real-time, giving fans a new way to understand what makes a great serve great.  

Also new this year is Key Moments, which takes the popular live Likelihood to Win feature a step further, helping fans understand not just who’s winning, but why.

It’s available for all singles matches and calculates each player’s probability of victory using an AI-powered analysis of current and historical statistics, expert opinion and match momentum.

Key Moments provides additional, richer information, to summarise the swings, turning points and momentum shifts that change each match.

There’s also an enhanced Match Chat, which acts as an interactive companion throughout each match, letting fans ask questions in their own words to get instant, conversational answers.   

Some responses now go beyond text, bringing in relevant photos and video too.

Match Chat, powered by watsonx Orchestrate, draws on an expanded mix of live match data, analysis and historical information. For this, a collection of AI agents and models have been trained in the USTA’s editorial style and the language of tennis.

“Our work with IBM this year has been game-changing, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in digital fan engagement,” said Brian Ryerson, senior director, digital strategy, USTA. “By leveraging their AI capabilities, we’re delivering new, innovative, and highly personalised content and insights to our millions of fans worldwide, while significantly enhancing our ability to tell compelling stories throughout every match of the US Open.”

“Our partnership with the USTA continues to redefine digital sports experiences,” adds Jonathan Adashek, senior vice president, chief global affairs officer at IBM. “We can take millions of live data points streaming from the court and automatically route them into workflows that deliver usable insights in minutes and hours. These capabilities of Confluent, Bob and other IBM technologies help deliver a more intelligent experience, drawing greater value from data and changing the game for the US Open.”

The 2026 US Open runs from 23 August to 13 September.