The Next Frontier: How AI Is Shaping the Future of Personalization

This is part three of a three-part series, From Audience to Individual: How Rights Holders Are Using Fan Data to Transform Experience, Retention, and Revenue. If you missed it, part one looks at how first-party data and personalization are reshaping sports media and part two examines the commercial impact of fan data.

It’s been a busy summer for sports-focused streaming service FuboTV. 

Between promoting major events like the NBA Finals and the World Cup – available through channels it carries – and adding emerging properties such as Tracy McGrady’s Ones Basketball League and BIG3, Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 basketball league, to its own FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channel, Fubo found time to offer a glimpse into the future of personalization in sports.

As part of a recent mobile app update, Fubo’s notification intelligence – alerting fans at moments that match their preferences – has been upgraded. Last year, the streaming service started sending game alerts to opted-in subscribers based on past viewership data, inviting them to join the live broadcast in clutch situations. Now, users can receive notifications about key moments in games – e.g., a home run – and tap to watch the highlight on the go. 

“Fans rely on their smartphones for updates and quick hits, and Fubo is committed to delivering these high-stakes moments in addition to full live coverage,” said Isaac Josephson, senior vice president, product management, at Fubo. “We’re transforming the Fubo mobile app from a simple streaming tool into a high-value, personalized content engine.”

Reclaiming Fan Relationships

Currently, most fans consume tailor-made sports content on the forefront of personalization: social media platforms. Using data on users’ past behavior, interests, and interactions, social media algorithms are built to determine which content should appear on each user’s feed – and to deliver rights holders the reach they seek. But this reach, say industry experts, comes at a high cost.

“For years, social media has been the default space where fans connect with their favourite teams, players, and moments,” explained Jonty Whitehead, President and Founder of gamification and on-screen engagement company Sport BUFF. “When sports hands over its fan interface to third-party platforms like X, Instagram, or TikTok, something important is lost: control, value, and the ability to deeply engage audiences.”

In an effort to reclaim these audiences, forward-thinking organizations are leveraging AI to improve personalization on owned channels. The reason is simple: AI-powered content has become central to today’s fan journey. A recent report by consulting and IT services firm Capgemini – based on a survey of over 12,000 sports fans in 11 countries – revealed that Gen AI is viewed as the ultimate sports concierge, providing content tailored to individual tastes.

Key findings include:

• 59% of respondents trust sports content generated by Gen AI tools.

• 67% of fans want Gen AI tools to aggregate in one place all sports-related information from websites, online search engines, and social media platforms. 

• 64% of fans want Gen AI to deliver sports content that matches their taste.

• 54% of fans want Gen AI to compile personalized highlight reels in real time. 

Millions of Personalized Shows

This sentiment has only been amplified through ESPN’s “SportsCenter for You.” Providing subscribers with a personalized version of its flagship news show had long been on the network’s agenda. The launch of its direct-to-consumer (DTC) app last summer was the perfect opportunity to execute this futuristic idea with AI-generated storytelling tailored to each subscriber’s favorite players, teams, and events.

“One of the first things we tackled was how to think about this incredible IP in a digital-first lens,” explained Brian Marshall, ESPN’s vice president of sports product and strategy. “What’s incredible about SportsCenter is that the team creates an amazing show that reaches millions of people every day. We’ve tried to take that idea and flip it on its head for digital. What if you instead created millions of shows, each personalized to the individual fan?”

Creating personalized programming for millions of fans requires, beyond scaling production, first-party data on content preferences. This is where AI-powered content platforms become essential. Not only can they generate and distribute video content on a massive scale, but they also analyze footage (live or archived) and recognize every play, player, and key moment, tagging each with rich metadata.

These tags transform every piece of video content into numerous data points that feed CDPs and can be leveraged, among other things, for advanced segmentation. Using data to build precise fan segments is becoming a common practice in sports. The National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) new marketing strategy, for example, involves targeting fan groups more narrowly by creating social and digital content meant to engage the different types of fans.

One of those groups, said Andrew LeRay, director of brand marketing at NWSL, is young women who are “predisposed to soccer in some way.” Another type of fan the league is targeting is “people who are interested in elite soccer,” which, according to LeRay, are “more conversion-focused and take action more immediately.”

AI-Powered Audience Activation

As the NWSL illustrates, the future of personalization is not simply about creating more fan segments. It is about activating those segments across the organization. The same audience insights that help content teams determine which stories to tell can also inform sponsorship activations, subscription offers, ticketing campaigns, and broader fan engagement strategies, making fan data the connective tissue linking every part of the sports industry.

The commercial implications are significant. Organizations that understand individual preferences can deliver more relevant content, strengthen loyalty, reduce churn, increase retention, and create new sponsorship opportunities. In other words, personalization is no longer just an engagement tactic. It has become a driver of business outcomes, influencing everything from lifetime value to the premiums brands are willing to pay for access to fans.

Underpinning this evolution is the growing ability to turn fan data into optimized experiences. AI-powered content platforms are making this process increasingly seamless, helping rights holders respond to changing preferences with speed, precision, and scale. As this technology continues to evolve, personalization is emerging as a core capability for organizations seeking to strengthen every fan relationship, every touchpoint, and every commercial outcome.

This is part three of a three-part series, From Audience to Individual: How Rights Holders Are Using Fan Data to Transform Experience, Retention, and Revenue. If you missed it, part one looks at how first-party data and personalization are reshaping sports media and part two examines the commercial impact of fan data.