The 2026 FIFA Cup is set to be the biggest yet, with 48 teams set to battle it out for football’s biggest prize, in front of a global audience of billions.
But away from the pitch and behind the scenes, the tournament is hard at work on what is also set to be the most technologically advanced World Cup ever.
“Extremely exciting” AI possibilities
“We definitely want to leverage this sport to promote our brand and our AI, but meanwhile, Lenovo technology can empower this sport,” Yuanqing Yang, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Lenovo, said at a Q&A session during CES 2026.
“We think the coming 2026 World Cup will be the most embedded AI event. You will see football AI. You will see AI for the most famous players, and you will see referee cam, which will be very attractive to the audience.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino joined Yang on stage during Lenovo’s striking CES 2026 keynote at the Las Vegas Sphere, highlighting the possibilities improved technology (especially AI) can bring.
The two organizations have partnered to provide Referee View, a stream showing matches from the official’s perspective, giving additional streams to broadcasters and unique viewing experiences for fans, with the picture quality boosted by Lenovo’s AI-driven stabilization overlay.
The pair have also launched Football AI Pro, a new AI-powered assistant which will offer up data to all 48 teams at the World Cup using plain language questions, helping deliver extra insight and analysis across the board.
“There’s a high affinity and a high resonance between Lenovo’s mission of smarter AI for all…with the world’s most popular and largest sport,” Art Hu, SVP & Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology and Delivery Officer, Solutions and Services Group, Lenovo said at CES 2026.
“It’s fundamentally the match and the ambition – advancing the sports and bringing the spectacle, the excitement and the drama to the fans around the world, and working on technology (which) brings the best of Lenovo on what’s possible…and matching it with deeply ambitious goals.”
“It’s extremely exciting, and it’s a chance to put the leading edge technology into creating some really good outcomes for fans.”
“Until 2010, there was really no technology integrated into the game itself, or for TV or radio,” notes Johannes Holzmüller, FIFA Director of Innovation, “but at FIFA, and talking about football in general, we have a clear mandate now not to use technology for the sake of it…but for the best experience.”
Holzmüller outlined how the new upgraded VAR tools should also help improve the fan experience, with improved avatars making the use cases a bit more vivid.
“One very important element (of implementing VAR) was that we are not only providing a tool for the referees -but also of course explaining it in the best possible way for the fans.”
Making VAR more realistic will also help fans understand more clearly, he notes, “3D avatars are bridging the gap between the physical world and the virtual world.”
“When you’re working at the peak of the industry, in this case with sport, it really pushes us as partners,” Hu notes, “you put (the technology) under the most extreme conditions…and those are things that we value, because they validate, but they also push us to be better as we co-innovate.”
Hu added that as technologists, having demanding partners such as FIFA also leads to ever-increasing complexities, with Lenovo having to seek effective solutions to the problems an event like the World Cup 2026 poses.
“With generative AI, you may now get much more technology and capability without all the coding…which is great because it’s unleashing business appetite and innovations.”
“What I love about all of this work is that we are helping innovate at the frontiers of what is possible, to evolve the sport and make it next generation, and inspire the next generation of fans.”
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