Premier League sees 25% fan engagement boost from AI

The Premier League has reported a 25% increase in digital fan engagement, attributing the surge to the integration of advanced AI features across its official app and platforms. Speaking at the recent SportsPro event, Premier League executive Alexandra Willis highlighted how strategic collaborations with Microsoft and Adobe have delivered measurable results, reshaping how fans interact with the competition worldwide.

The league explained that the introduction of AI-driven tools was not just a technological upgrade, but a way to deepen the relationship between fans and the sport. According to senior figures, the growth stems from features such as the Premier League Companion, a Copilot-powered interface that allows fans to query decades of statistics, player profiles and historical content in natural language. By making archives more accessible and responsive, the Companion has expanded daily usage and improved dwell time across the league’s digital ecosystem.

Adobe’s role has been equally influential. Its Express and Firefly engines have empowered fans to generate custom kits, badges and visual content using official Premier League assets. Executives noted that this creative dimension has been particularly effective in driving social sharing, leading to a wider organic reach and strengthening fan communities across digital channels. Adobe’s analytics have also enabled sharper personalisation, ensuring news, alerts, and match updates are contextually relevant to each supporter.

The 25% increase in engagement underscores a broader transformation: the shift from passive consumption to active participation. Fans are no longer limited to reading match reports or watching highlights; they can now co-create, interact, and immerse themselves in club narratives. For the league, this translates into higher levels of loyalty, more precise sponsorship opportunities and a foundation for monetising digital platforms in new ways.

Premier League executives acknowledged the operational challenges that come with AI adoption, ensuring accuracy, safeguarding privacy and handling traffic at scale, but stressed that the numbers demonstrate tangible progress. They also framed the initiative as part of a long-term strategy to keep pace with changing audience expectations, particularly among younger, digitally native fans.

By publicly sharing these results at SportsPro, the league positioned itself as a global leader in the adoption of sports technology. The next stage, executives suggested, could include expanding AI-guided fantasy experiences and real-time, personalised storytelling. However, the early outcome is already clear: a data-driven strategy that is engaging fans at unprecedented levels.