How is artificial intelligence transforming the Olympics for athletes, fans, and the future of sport?

Recorded live at AI4 2026 in Las Vegas, Sanjay Puri speaks with Alejandro Merino-Madrid, Head of AI at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), about how AI is being used to reshape the Olympic experience.

Alejandro explains how the IOC evaluates frontier AI models across four key criteria: capability, cost, flexibility, and sovereignty. He also shares how AI is being deployed to support athletes, democratize access to technology, improve the efficiency and sustainability of the Games, and create more engaging experiences for Olympic fans.

The conversation explores AI-powered athlete support, talent identification, AI assistants for fans, multilingual access, data sovereignty, responsible AI, human-in-the-loop governance, and how AI could fundamentally change the way audiences experience the Olympics.

In this episode:

  • How the IOC is evaluating and deploying frontier AI
  • AI’s role in supporting athletes and competition
  • How AI can democratize access to sports technology
  • Using AI to identify athletic talent around the world
  • AI-powered assistants for Olympic fans
  • How AI can make the Games more sustainable
  • Data sovereignty and AI governance across countries
  • Building trustworthy AI for the global Olympic movement
  • The future of AI agents for athletes and fans
  • How AI could transform the Brisbane Olympics and beyond
  • Why the IOC still keeps humans in the loop
  • Why Alejandro would not trust AI with live Olympic results

Whether you’re an AI leader, sports executive, policymaker, technology enthusiast, or Olympic fan, this conversation offers a fascinating look at how AI is being used to make the world’s biggest sporting event more accessible, engaging, and intelligent.

Recorded live at AI4 2026 in Las Vegas by Knowledge Networks.

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Chapters

 

00:00 How AI is transforming the Olympic experience

00:25 Meet Alejandro Merino-Madrid, Head of AI at the IOC

01:00 How the IOC evaluates frontier AI models

02:00 AI sovereignty and protecting athlete data

03:00 The IOC’s five AI focus areas

05:00 AI-powered experiences for Olympic fans

06:00 Democratizing AI across the Olympic movement

07:00 Using AI to discover athletic talent

09:00 Helping smaller nations adopt AI safely

10:00 The IOC’s Trustworthy AI Framework

11:00 Protecting athlete data and AI governance

13:00 AI agents for athletes

14:00 How AI could transform the Olympic fan experience

16:00 AI-powered sports analysis and judging

17:00 Democratizing access to athletic performance insights

18:00 Keeping fans engaged beyond the Games

19:00 The future vision for AI and the Olympics

20:00 The AI decisions the IOC will—and won’t—delegate

21:00 AI’s role in bringing the Olympics to everyone