With 48 teams and 104 games across 16 host cities and three countries (the United States, Canada and Mexico), this year’s FIFA World Cup is projected to be the biggest sporting event ever in terms of attendance, revenue and global viewership.
It also promises to be the most technologically advanced, and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular will touch almost all aspects of the tournament.
This reflects a growing use of AI in soccer and across elite sport, with tools being applied not only to optimise athlete performance but also enhance match officiating, event security and fan experience.
Let’s look at how AI will be used in the World Cup, who may benefit and what risks could emerge.
How it will be used on the pitch
In our review of AI use in soccer we found various ways it can assist on the pitch:
- tools to support player, team and match evaluation
- forecasting of match outcomes and in-game events (such as expected goals and assists, corners, passes, opposition tactics)
- monitoring athlete workload
- injury prediction and detection
- talent scouting.
At the World Cup, coaches will use AI alongside more conventional data to inform how they approach each game, including what opposition strengths they need to negate and what weaknesses they can exploit.
Similarly, high performance staff will use AI to monitor player health and wellbeing, and forecast potential injuries.
The dreaded penalty shoot-out is one area where AI will have a direct influence. Teams will use AI to synthesise historical data to provide insights on goalkeepers and penalty takers’ likely strategies.
A key benefit is the speed at which these analyses can be undertaken. What used to take days of old-fashioned human legwork can now be done in hours, even for entire squads.
Should a game go to a shootout, AI could very likely influence the winning kick or save.
What about referees?
Match officials will also be supported by AI.
While semi-automated offside technology was introduced in the 2022 World Cup, it will be enhanced through the addition of AI-enabled 3D avatars of every player. The aim is to improve referees’ decision accuracy through the use of more precise body dimensions of the players involved.
The avatars will also be used to provide more engaging content when Video Assistant Referee (VAR) decisions are shown to fans. Rather than seeing only generic figures, fans will now see realistic avatars incorporating players’ faces, kit and even their hairstyle.
Another use in match officiating will be referee view technology, which uses body cameras to capture in-game footage from the referee perspective. AI will be used to stabilise images, with the emphasis on enhancing the fans’ immersive experience.
What about off the field?
Crowd management and logistics are other areas where AI will be deployed.
FIFA has built an “Intelligence Command Centre” – which will connect data across matches, venues and broadcasters – as well as digital twin models of stadiums to monitor and forecast crowd behaviour.
This will aim to ensure crowd-related issues such as bottlenecks are controlled.
Are there any risks?
While there are many benefits, a broad spectrum of risks will need to be managed.
Key concerns with AI tools are substandard outputs, and loss of skills and meaningful work for humans. To combat this, teams should ensure AI is only used to support human decision making, not replace it.
Data privacy and security will be key concerns, with the possibility of confidential or sensitive information being leaked or accessed by unauthorised or malicious actors. The use of AI in areas such as security and crowd management could also provide the opportunity for highly disruptive cyber attacks.
Equality could be an issue: teams with more financial power may have an advantage through more sophisticated tools.
In an attempt to level the playing field, FIFA has introduced Football AI Pro, an AI tool available to all teams. This soccer-specific large language model supports both pre- and post-match analysis and provides access to more than 2,000 metrics.
The aim is to ensure all nations have access to at least some level of AI support. It remains to be seen which nations actually use it.
Another potential adverse outcome is tactical homogenisation, where games become predictable because every team follows the same AI-generated game plan.
Sadly, AI will likely be deployed for nefarious purposes, for example as part of ticketing scams through AI-generated images, deepfakes, websites and phishing emails. Fans should take care at all times.
AI will be everywhere
AI is fast becoming a key component of high performance sport. It will be leveraged throughout the tournament to support preparation, performance and recovery.
While it could increase the gap between larger and smaller nations, it might also give smaller nations a new edge.
So could 2026 be the year in which AI genuinely contributes to a World Cup win? We won’t see an AI agent scoring a goal, or a robot coach calling the shots (at least not yet) but there is no doubt the winner of the tournament will have relied on AI along the way.
In terms of who that will be – well, we could always ask AI.
