‘I think the acceptance of AI [in tennis] is really important’ – Maria Sharapova

Entrepreneur and tennis legend Maria Sharapova took to Centre Stage at Collision in Toronto to share insights on the transformative impact of AI on tennis. Speaking alongside IBM senior VP of software and chief commercial officer Rob Thomas, Maria discussed how technological advancements are reshaping the sport and enhancing fan engagement.

The former Grand Slam winner (pictured above) expressed enthusiasm for AI’s role in modern tennis, reflecting on the transition from human line judges to automated systems.

“I think the acceptance of AI is really important,” Maria remarked. “I look back to when the line calls were made by humans, and when the challenge system came into place, we were all extremely hesitant.“

“Did we necessarily believe in the system right off the bat? I don’t think anyone would agree with that. It took a lot of time to build trust, and now, you know, you’re at the US Open, and there are no line judges, which I actually miss.”

Highlighting IBM’s latest innovation, Rob introduced the company’s new Catch Me Up feature, which will debut at Wimbledon this year.

“We love working with Wimbledon [and] the new feature this year is something called Catch Me Up. If you haven’t been watching the tennis, you’re a day or two behind, you find your favourite athlete, and you’re instantly caught up on the mobile app.

“You get an AI summarization of everything they’ve been doing, media coverage, statistics, and predictions for their next match. It’s a great way to improve the fan experience and keep people up to speed,“ added the VP.

Maria went on to talk about how AI can enrich the fan experience by providing in-depth information about the players. “As a player, you walk on the court, knowing that a fan is informed about your game and results, it makes for a better experience as an athlete. It’s more engaging.

“Most of the time, when you go to a sporting event, I’d say 80 percent of the time, people don’t really know the underdogs. So I think the experience becomes so much richer when they are engaged and know exactly about this young player across the net, who might be number one in the world.”

Maria’s comments were made as part of a wider discussion on sport at Collision, which is returning to Toronto for its sixth year. Global founders, CEOs, investors and members of the media have come to the city to make deals and experience North America’s thriving tech ecosystem.

More than 1,600 startups are taking part in Collision 2024 – the highest number of startups ever at a Collision event. 45 percent of these are women-founded, and startups have travelled to Toronto from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.

In total, more than 37,800 attendees have gathered at the event, as well as 570 speakers and 1,003 members of the media, to explore business opportunities with an international audience.

739 investors are attending Collision, including Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, as well as nine companies on the Forbes Midas List, and 12 investors from those firms.

Top speakers at Collision include:

• Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI
• Maria Sharapova, entrepreneur and tennis legend
• Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of Cohere (an AI for enterprise and large language model company, which raised US$450 million at a US$5 billion valuation in June 2024)
• Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi (a Canadian autonomous trucking company)
• Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password
• Dali Rajic, president and COO of Wiz (a cloud security platform)
• Alex Israel, co-founder and CEO of Metropolis (an AI and computer vision platform)
• Jonathan Ross, founder and CEO of Groq (an AI chip startup)
• Keily Blair, CEO of OnlyFans
• Autumn Peltier, Indigenous rights activist

About Web Summit: 

Web Summit runs the world’s largest technology events, connecting people and ideas that change the world. Half a million people have attended Web Summit events – Web Summit in Europe, Web Summit Rio in South America, Collision in North America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, and RISE in Asia – since the company’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009.

This year alone, Web Summit has hosted sold-out events in Qatar, which welcomed more than 15,000 attendees, and in Rio, where more than 34,000 people took part. Our events have been supported by partners including the Qatar Investment Authority, Snap, Deloitte, TikTok, Huawei, Microsoft, Shell, Palo Alto Networks, EY, Builder.ai and Qatar Airways. 

Web Summit’s mission is to enable the meaningful connections that change the world. Web Summit also undertakes a range of initiatives to support diversity, equality and inclusion across the tech worlds, including Impact, women in tech, Amplify, our scholarship program, and our community partnerships.

Useful links

• Collision website: https://collisionconf.com/ 
• Collision media kit: https://collisionconf.com/media/media-kit  
• Collision images: https://flickr.com/photos/collisionconf 
• About Web Summit: about.websummit.com