Artificial intelligence transformed the Super Bowl on and off the field and was especially prominent in advertising.
The Philadelphia Eagles thumped the Kansas City Chiefs 40-6 in what was a rout.
Artificial intelligence was in the frame in the lead-up to the match and during game play. So much so, that many called this year’s Super Bowl the “AI Super Bowl”.
There was the betting before the match with SportsLine using AI and machine learning for AI predictions and AI ratings.
AI matches a team’s historical data with the strength of its opponents. And yes, in this case SportsLine AI did purportedly pick the Eagles to win, despite many favouring the Chiefs before the game.
That wasn’t the case with other AI models. Forbes reports that ChatGPT, Grok and DeepSeek were among AI models that slightly favoured the Chiefs to win.
Next Gen Stats provided real-time insights during the match.
The American NFL deployed an NFL Technology Innovation Hub that is being used to test and develop new technologies that can be integrated into the game.
In the lead up to the game there was the development of the AI-powered digital athlete that uses sensors, videos and real-time data to simulate player experiences to predict and prevent injuries, according to inclusioncloud.com.
There’s AI-Powered Tackle Analysis for better understanding tackling, and development of machine learning for extracting metrics from data generated during game play.
The US Department of Homeland Security used facial recognition as part of security operations, but drones were not deployed for crowd monitoring.
AI’s most prominent presence was in advertising, with Google showcasing its large language model Gemini, ChatGPT owner OpenAI tracking humanity’s evolution, and Meta highlighting AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, Forbes reports.
Salesforce showcased its customer assistance AI-agent, and GoDaddy promoted its AI-assisted website building tool.
The 30-second ad slots each cost US$8 million each.
It wasn’t just the big tech firms. Other advertising was aided by AI in its production.
There were other tech innovations at the Super Bowl such as new, advanced broadcasting equipment and the addition of Dolby Atmos sound in broadcasts to Comcast viewers.
It remains to be seen how much will be remembered of this AI advertising smorgasbord by fans at the game. Hopefully it’s a lot, given the millions spent on trying to influence them.
