Power Behind Paris 2024: Deloitte Pushes Olympics Innovation
It is July 2024, which means you are probably watching the Olympic Games. But have you thought about how it made it to your screen?
With more than 200 countries participating in over 1000 events across summer and winter, the Olympic and Paralympic Games are the most watched and recognised global sporting event in the world.
Paris 2024 has already been hailed as a digitally transformed Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been steadfastly focused on transforming sports from all areas, whilst staying true to 2,800-year-old Olympic values.
This included the announcement of its first Olympic AI Agenda in April 2024, as it seeks to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can power greater insights for athletes, broadcasters and viewers around the world.
Supporting in these efforts is Deloitte, a multinational professional services organisation that is committed to exploring new and emerging technologies. In April 2024, Technology Magazine, from the sidelines of the IOC’s AI press conference, spoke exclusively with some leading executives involved in the partnership about what these innovations mean for the Olympic Games, as well as the possibilities of AI and digital transformation for future games.
“AI is disrupting the sports ecosystem”
One of the ‘Big Four’ professional services organisations, Deloitte is a Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic Partner. It stands up a global team to deliver meaningful impact to the IOC, International Paralympic Committee (IPC), National Olympic Committees, fans and athletes who make the Games possible.
The organisation is using its global scale, deep insights and understanding of innovation to track the impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, present and future.
“Like so many other industries, AI is disrupting the sports ecosystem,” comments Kevin Walsh, Managing Partner, Deloitte North and South Europe. “We're looking into areas such as sustainability and athletes who are transitioning out of their careers.”
Deloitte seeks to use its extensive environmental, social and governance (ESG) services expertise to assist the IOC on critical challenges identified in the Olympic Agenda 2020+5. These are related to corporate governance, strategy, sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and athlete support and well-being.
One of the other areas that Deloitte is placing its focus is AI strategy and the intersection of this digital transformation with sustainability moving forward.
“We are pleased to help facilitate the process with the IOC to develop the AI Agenda,” says Lou DiLorenzo, US AI & Data Strategy Practice Leader at Deloitte. “We made sure we brought the best and most diverse perspectives from the market, from academia and from fellow TOP partners. That's a facilitated process to make sure that we're working through, with the IOC: What are the core themes? How does it line up with their focus areas? How does it line up with their unique responsibility in the world?”
Digital engagement: Transforming the global viewing experience
As sport is personal to the individual, Deloitte is currently advising on the IOC’s business strategy using digital transformation consulting capabilities to create new possibilities for personalised fan engagement.
“There is a tremendous team effort at the IOC to enrich the digital solutions and backbone and release new digital functionality to the world,” John Tweardy, Managing Partner, Olympic & Major Events Practice at Deloitte, says. “One of those is around digital marketing and fan engagement.”
The fan data platform is intended to deliver personalised activations, including informing fans of upcoming moments, updates and highlights, in addition to personalised video content, campaigns and promotions. By helping the IOC develop its fan data platform strategy, Deloitte aims to support the IOC’s goal of empowering people to immerse themselves in content that inspires them, with the end goal of customising each fan’s digital journey and enabling them to focus on the sports they love and the athletes they follow.
“The IOC has incredible fans that are passionate about sports and what the Olympics stands for and the goal is to be more precise and intentional on how best to engage each fan as an individual.”, states John, “No one wants to receive generic emails and information. You build trust with your fans with personalised information, tailored to what they love about sports that is useful, interesting and engaging.”
All these efforts are to keep fans engaged, as John explains. Likewise, the delivery of the digital backbone must protect this covenant of trust with the fans with model digital platforms, secure systems and data, and enterprise processes, all of which Deloitte feels empowered to deliver now and in the future.
The evolving use of enterprise AI in sports
Moving towards a digital future, Deloitte and the IOC share a commitment to enhance the IOC’s digital ecosystem.
“I think one of our roles is the convener of this incredible ecosystem,” John says. “We can provide strategic direction and leverage some ‘outside-in’ thinking because our portfolio is also non-sports. At the intersection of traditional sports and the digital future, we can create and co-create some really powerful innovation.
“We see ourselves as a catalyst for transformation over the next decade. You can talk about AI, but the proof is really in the illustration of its power and impact.”
Deloitte is working with the IOC to not only drive AI use cases for the Olympic Games, but also to imagine how the technology can improve referee insights, sports equipment maintenance and athlete performance. This can be extended to the wider business landscape, as organisations explore how their AI uses can be more predictive and inspire improved decision-making.
Lou highlights: “For enterprises in general, what you're going to see is significant activity around AI, whether you're a product company or a technology provider. They're working to build those capabilities for themselves and for their customers.”
He explains that the IOC’s AI Agenda approach is meaningful because it made choices about what was important in a sports context.
“In an ecosystem that continues to see progress and change, what matters is how to harness and integrate those capabilities to focus and deliver on what matters,” he says. “Going forward, some of the most important capabilities are going to be modularity, flexibility and agility.
“Flexibility is going to allow a lasting impact in a world where digital transformation continues to move at an increasing level of innovation and pace.”
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