AI: Powering Real-Time Insights at Women’s Rugby World Cup

Rugby is a sport that is defined by speed, accuracy and passion.

Despite the sport’s history stretching back as far as 1823, rugby – namely, the women’s game – has had a 21st century glow-up thanks to Capgemini, which is redefining how fans experience the game thanks to the power of its AI.

Capgemini’s TryZone IQ is a groundbreaking AI-powered platform delivering real-time match insights like never before, with the tech painting a richer, deeper picture of every tackle, run and try for fans watching at home.

This summer, it was used for the first time at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, the sport’s home country.

Benefitting newbies to the game, young watchers and die-hard fans alike, the introduction of TryZone IQ marks the first use of Gen AI at a Rugby World Cup, supporting the commentary team by providing real-time match analysis and contextual insights throughout the tournament across broadcast, social and digital channels.

“As women’s rugby reaches new heights and the World Cup draws global attention, we felt there was a unique opportunity to apply innovation to make the game more engaging for a broader fanbase,” Steven Webb, Capgemini’s UK Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, says.

“With TryZone IQ, we’re infusing the transformative power of Gen AI into the heart of the game to meet the expectations of fans today who are looking for real-time stories, context and clarity as they follow the sport. 

“It is a great example of how innovation can help fans feel closer to the action while enhancing their overall experience and enjoyment along the way.”

TryZone IQ: AI’s eyes on the game

Unlike traditional sports coverage that often relies on repetitive statistics or delayed analysis, TryZone IQ dives deep – and fast.

Every minute, it digests live and historical data – including player moves, team momentum and even the subtle ebb and flow of possession – which it then feeds to an advanced Gen AI engine quietly behind the scenes.

This then weaves this raw input into insightful narratives for commentators and digital platforms.

“TryZone IQ is a first in the history of rugby,” Steven explains to Technology Magazine. “It processes historic and live match data like player actions, team dynamics and stats through a Gen AI engine, producing concise, actionable summaries for analysts during live broadcasts.

“These insights can support commentary or be integrated across digital and social channels, giving fans context-rich updates in real time. In collaboration with World Rugby and Opta, Capgemini also developed new on-screen visualisations like Expected Tries and Attacking Threat, which simplify complex metrics into intuitive graphics, showing fans key moments and who’s most likely to score.

“Importantly, the system is designed for human-AI collaboration, so analysts can refine and control the insights.

“In short, TryZone IQ democratises rugby knowledge, helping millions of fans understand the game like never before.”

Bringing tech-driven insights to viewers, wherever they are

Fusing together real-time, raw data and historical facts does not come without its challenges, however.

To humanise large volumes of information, Steven explains that Capgemini developed advanced real-time data processing systems that could handle the influx of massive data streams every minute, including player actions and team dynamics.

“One of the biggest hurdles was processing large volumes of live data in real time,” he says. “At the same time, we needed strong safeguards in place to minimise the risk of AI hallucinations and build confidence with our partners, so they could fully trust the insights we were generating.”

On top of this, a challenge was ensuring the technology focused on what fans care about most, identifying this information before then presenting it in a way that’s easy to follow, particularly for those new to the sport.

“Another important step was understanding how TV production teams craft narratives in real time, so that our insights were designed to maximise their chances of making it onto the live feed,” Steven adds.

Next? The challenge – an exciting one, no doubt – is expanding what Capgemini is doing with TryZone IQ to other sports, sectors, and use cases.

Outcome IQ, another Capgemini technology, was used during the 2025 Ryder Cup and brought real-time match insights and probabilities to golf, much like TryZone iQ does for rugby.

“It evaluates every stroke, hole and match in just a few seconds, giving fans a real-time understanding of momentum shifts, strategic decisions and performance under pressure,” Steven says.

Then in sailing, there’s Windsight IQ, which was created in collaboration with America’s Cup Media and launched for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup in 2024, which offers audiences a window into one of the sport’s most vital yet often unseen forces – the wind.

“Beyond sports, we’re also applying AI-driven storytelling to entirely new domains,” Steeven concludes. “For example, we’ve partnered with Imperial War Museums (IWM) to make 20th-century conflict history more accessible to the public.

“By using AI to transcribe and analyse over 20,000 hours of oral history interviews, we’re helping uncover stories and perspectives that were previously hidden.”