Don’t let GenAI destroy the entertainment spectacle of sports

Generative AI (GenAI) is pushing the boundaries of sports media, enabling hyper-personalized content, real-time video generation, and AI-powered commentary. It’s a game-changer for sports marketing, offering faster content creation and broader audience engagement. But while GenAI excels at efficiency, its application in broadcasting and live sports analysis poses a fundamental risk: diminishing the human connection that makes sports an entertainment spectacle.

With their charisma and banter, the TNT basketball crew is as much a part of the NBA experience as the game itself. Fans aren’t just consuming information but investing in personalities and narratives. If GenAI-driven avatars replace human analysts or AI-generated commentary strips away authenticity, sports leaders may save money but risk alienating their most valuable asset—passionate fans.

To harness GenAI effectively, sports leaders must balance innovation and tradition. GenAI should enhance, not replace, the elements of sports media that create an emotional connection. Sports media leaders can use GenAI to cover deeper, more authentic narratives but must be careful not to substitute human imperfections with automated predictability.

GenAI is revolutionizing written commentary with instant, intelligent content

Take Infosys’ GenAI-powered commentary for the Australian Open as a prime example. By analyzing match data across 30 different metrics, GenAI generates real-time written commentary that significantly enhances the fan experience. This radio-style written commentary offers a dynamic view of the action, allowing fans a more informative and immersive experience.

Infosys’s large language models (LLMs) can grasp the significance of each point, set, and match using a single, uniform piece of code. This capability enables post-match summaries to capture the excitement of crowning a champion during the final match.

Infosys recognized the existing written commentary for the Australian Open as an opportunity to unlock GenAI’s potential, transforming it into a more detailed and data-driven experience. This application of AI showcases its ability to deliver in-depth insights while preserving the sport’s emotional essence (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1: AI-written commentary about the Australian Open, powered by Infosys

Source: Jannik Sinner vs Alexander Zverev – MS701 | AO

GenAI’s sweet spot: Speed, scale, and personalization

GenAI truly shines in delivering rapid, data-driven content at scale. Written recaps, highlight reels, and personalized content streams can now be generated instantly, meeting the growing demand for real-time updates across multiple languages and fan preferences.

Beyond written content, GenAI also enables hyper-personalized engagement. Fans could receive content tailored to their favorite teams and their specific consumption habits, historical preferences, and cultural contexts. For example, a fan in the US might see a different post-match analysis than one in the UK, reflecting their unique connection to teams and players.

This level of personalization allows leagues and teams to deepen engagement with global audiences, driving new revenue streams while ensuring that fans receive content that resonates with them. But while AI-generated personalization can enhance engagement, sports leaders must ensure it complements—rather than replaces—the human-driven narratives that build loyalty.

The dangerous line: AI avatars and the risk of losing the human element

While GenAI is powerful for analytics and content automation, it struggles with one irreplaceable aspect of sports media: human charisma. AI-driven avatars for pre-game and post-game analysis might seem cost-effective, but they risk turning an entertainment spectacle into a robotic, impersonal experience.

Hour One’s ambition to introduce GenAI avatars for sports broadcasting is a bold vision, but it underestimates fans’ emotional connection with human analysts, commentators, and former athletes. The inside jokes, heated debates, and off-the-cuff reactions from sports personalities such as Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal are as much a part of the viewing experience as the game itself.

Even if AI can mimic human speech patterns and expressions, it lacks the unpredictability and authenticity that make live sports commentary compelling. AI may be able to narrate how a game was won, but it can’t express the frustration of a missed call or the joy of a last-second goal in a way that resonates with fans on an emotional level.

Striking the right balance: Leverage GenAI without undermining the spectacle

The key to successfully integrating GenAI into sports media lies in identifying where it adds value and where it crosses the line and diminishes the entertainment experience.

GenAI should focus on:

• Enhancing speed and efficiency: Automate highlight reels, written recaps, and social media content to ensure fans get updates instantly. Infosys’ integration of GenAI into the Australian Open is a prime example of a successful adoption.
• Expanding accessibility: Multilingual and culturally adapted content can be used to personalize engagement with global audiences. Because each fan consumes sports differently, GenAI can automate and hyper-personalize content per persona.
• Supporting in-depth analysis and commentary: Empower sports commentators and analysts with real-time, advanced statistics and predictive analytics. This will enable them to provide deeper, data-driven insights, uncover hidden trends, and enhance storytelling with more informed and engaging commentary.

However, GenAI should not replace human broadcasters and analysts. The personalities that fans connect with on an emotional level should remain at the heart of sports media. AI struggles with improvisation and emotional nuance, making it ill-suited for real-time broadcasting. AI-driven avatars will diminish the entertainment aspect, pushing fans away rather than bringing them closer.

Leaders in sports media must be deliberate in how they implement GenAI. The goal should be to enhance efficiency without sacrificing entertainment—a delicate balance that will determine whether GenAI transforms sports media for the better or dilutes its core appeal.

The Bottom Line: GenAI can transform the sports industry by enhancing the fan experience—but it must not diminish their emotional connection to sports and athletes.

GenAI presents a powerful opportunity to revolutionize sports media, enabling rapid content delivery, hyper-personalization, and advanced analytics. But it also poses a real risk: stripping the entertainment value from sports by replacing human-driven storytelling with robotic automation.

The future of GenAI in sports media will be defined by how well organizations can balance efficiency with authenticity. Leaders who use GenAI to complement human storytelling will thrive. Those who overreach and attempt to replace the human experience with AI-driven broadcasts risk losing the fans they aim to engage.

The answer is clear: augment—but don’t automate—the entertainment spectacle of sports.