A series of AI-powered “digital experiences” will be coming to USOpen.org and the US Open app for this year’s tournament

US Open - IBM

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) have partnered with IBM on a series of AI-powered “digital experiences” coming to USOpen.org and the US Open app for this year’s tournament.

These include Match Chat, an interactive AI assistant, which is available during and after all 254 singles matches.

Fans can ask questions about player stats, head-to-head records, match insights and player name pronunciations. An example might be, Who has converted more break points in the match?

Match Chat is trained on the US Open editorial style and utilises real-time data to provide users with responses. It’s built with IBM watsonx Orchestrate technologies, including AI agents and large language models (LLMs) such as IBM Granite.

IBM is also rolling out an updated version of SlamTracker, offering fans live likelihood to win probabilities for every singles match.

The tool will update in near real-time with projected win percentages that can change throughout each match, based on AI-powered analysis of player statistics, expert opinion and match momentum.

For post-match insights, AI Commentary provides AI-generated audio and subtitles in English for highlight videos of men’s and women’s singles matches.

The third “digital experience” is Key Points, built with watsonx, which creates three-bullet summaries of articles, tournament data and match analysis on the US Open app and website.

Fans can click a button at the top of the article page and receive a TL:DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) recap.

“As fan engagement and content consumption habits evolve, IBM and the USTA are at the cutting edge – leveraging data and AI to create unique digital experiences that bring the excitement of the US Open to life for audiences around the world,” said Jonathan Adashek, senior vice president, marketing and communications at IBM. “We’re applying the same powerful technologies that we use with client partners across all industries to meet the demands of tennis fans, deepening the connection to the players and game we all love.”

“Working with IBM, we developed a long-term technology roadmap that has transformed how we operate and connect with fans,” adds Brian Ryerson, sr. director of digital strategy at the USTA. “IBM took the time to understand our vision for the US Open, and together we identified the hybrid cloud and AI capabilities needed to bring it to life. Today, those efforts are paying off – delivering real-time insights that enrich the fan experience, while significantly improving the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of our digital platforms and behind-the scenes-operations.”