MW Super Bowl LX is turning into AI's coming-out party
By Charles Passy
It's not just about the OpenAI and Anthropic game-day ads - football's biggest event is even being powered by AI technology
Will Super Bowl LX be AI's "breakthrough moment"?
As the most-watched television event in the United States, the Super Bowl has always been more than just a football game. Each year's contest becomes an opportunity to speak to broader ideas and innovations in the marketplace.
So, what does that mean for Super Bowl LX, set to take place Sunday?
It's seemingly turning into the moment when AI, the futuristic technology that's increasingly finding its way into our everyday lives, reaches a tipping point in our culture. Call it AI's coming-out party - or better yet, the AI Bowl.
"This isn't AI's debut, but it's its mainstream breakthrough," said Tony Gonzalez, a veteran of the tech and advertising industries, and CEO and co-founder of Mundial Media, a California-based marketing firm.
Consider the fact that key companies vying for AI dominance will be airing commercials during the game - notably, OpenAI and Anthropic. In fact, Anthropic, which is behind the Claude AI chatbot, indirectly mocks OpenAI's ChatGPT in its ad. That has already led to some backlash from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
On top of that, AI technology is being used to help create some Super Bowl ads. Svedka vodka is touting the fact that its spot, featuring two dancing robots, will be the first fully AI-generated Super Bowl ad.
The story goes beyond the commercials. Owing in part to the fact this year's game is being played in the global tech hub of the San Francisco Bay Area, the event is becoming a platform for companies to showcase their AI technologies. Indeed, the Super Bowl host committee is presenting an Innovation Summit ahead of the game, which includes a panel covering AI and the future of global fandom.
"San Francisco has developed a supernova feeling around AI," said Walter A. Haas III, a prominent resident of the city and owner of Graffeo, its oldest coffee roastery. Haas is also the cousin of San Francisco's mayor, and part of the family behind Levi Strauss & Co. $(LEVI)$, the clothing company and jeans brand started in San Francisco. (The Super Bowl is being played in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, about 50 miles south of San Francisco.)
Finally, there's the fact that the event and all its behind-the-scenes operations are powered in part by AI, mirroring how the technology is finding its way into just about, well, everything in today's world.
'This isn't AI's debut, but it's its mainstream breakthrough.'Tony Gonzalez, a veteran of the tech and advertising industries
The game-day connection is exemplified in myriad ways. Here's one: Instawork, a company that uses AI technology to power a platform that connects would-be workers to employers, particularly in the hospitality industry, said it's helping fill as many as 5,000 temporary positions in San Francisco tied to the game and all the partying, clean-up and other aspects associated with it.
Instawork also said this goes beyond the Bay Area. It's seeing a spike in demand for its platform in the home locales of the two teams competing -the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.
Oh, and let's not forget the NFL and those teams who are vying for the sport's top honor.
It's no secret that the league has embraced AI: Through a partnership with Microsoft $(MSFT)$, the league has been using the technology to provide teams with what it calls "real-time game data and analysis tools." That means filtering information "to quickly analyze [team] formations, decipher coverages and make more data-driven and strategic decisions."
The NFL didn't respond for comment as to how this is exactly playing a role during Sunday's Super Bowl. But former NFL head coach Brian Billick, who led the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl victory in 2001, said all bets would indicate AI is becoming a bigger part of how teams make their decisions.
"Clearly, the concept has grown," he said.
Speaking of bets, the Super Bowl has traditionally been a major wagering occasion - and even more so now that gambling on sports is legal in much of the country. AI has a hand in that as well, since fans routinely turn to chatbots to help determine what kind of bet (or bets) to place on the game, potentially sparing them the ordeal of doing deep analytical research on their own.
"When AI is used right, it's ultimately a time-saver," said Robert Kraft, CEO and founder of Atlas World Sports, an app and website that tracks betting odds across numerous sportsbooks. (Kraft is no relation to the Patriots owner with the same name.)
Still, if the Super Bowl is the "ultimate trend accelerator," as Florida-based marketing professional Craig Agranoff put it, that doesn't mean the trend always comes to full fruition - or at least, not overnight.
Think back to 2000, when more than a dozen different dot-com companies ran ads during the Super Bowl - and some trend-watchers dubbed the whole affair the "Dot-Com Bowl" as a result.
Not all of those outfits made it: Pets.com, one of those companies that advertised, went out of business that same year, in fact. Moreover, the dot-com crash soon followed in the stock market, though obviously the internet ultimately established itself as a dominant commercial and communications platform.
It's possible the same could happen with AI - or at least with certain AI-centric companies. And there remains ever-present concerns about the havoc AI could wreak on the job market, if not society overall. As many have essentially argued: What happens when the robots take over?
It's something that Billick thinks about in terms of football. He posited that if AI comes to shape too much of game-day strategizing, "We can just play the game without the players and coaches," almost as if the "Madden NFL" videogame replaced the actual NFL. But Billick believes the "human element" will inevitably win out - the game requires interpreting things on a gut level, he said.
To that end, Monica Robbins, head of strategic marketing partnerships for Microsoft, said its AI-powered game-day tools aren't designed to predict outcomes and thus prompt playmaking decisions, but simply to assist coaches with sorting through play options in a quick, efficient manner.
Robbins added that the tools will certainly be available to Seahawks and Patriots coaches during the Super Bowl, much as they have been to all NFL coaches throughout the regular season. But if this is the AI Bowl, Robbins wants to make clear that humans are still in charge.
"We've given them tools to reinforce that gut instinct," she said.
-Charles Passy
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 06, 2026 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)
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