The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will introduce groundbreaking AI-driven broadcast technologies, organizers revealed during a virtual media briefing this week. Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services, outlined innovations poised to transform how global audiences experience winter sports.
A collaboration with Alibaba will deliver AI-supported 360-degree replays, building on technology first tested at the 2024 Paris Games. This system merges multiple camera angles with advanced motion analysis to create immersive slow-motion sequences and freeze frames within seconds of key moments.
Curling enthusiasts will gain new strategic insights through an AI stone-tracking system that visualizes each stone’s trajectory, rotation speed, and path in real time. The Winter Games will also debut Olympic GPT, an AI assistant providing instant event updates and rule explanations to viewers worldwide.
Production teams will utilize the Automatic Media Description platform to manage overwhelming video volumes. “AI transforms raw footage into searchable content,” Exarchos explained, noting the system suggests metadata tags and identifies crucial moments for highlight reels.
First-person view drones will plunge audiences into high-speed bobsleigh and luge events, while cloud-based virtual OB vans aim to halve traditional broadcast infrastructure requirements. An automated highlights generator, credited with creating 100,000+ unique clips during Paris 2024, will make its Winter Games debut.
