The following is an extract from SportBusiness’ 2025 Global Sponsorship Report. To find out more, head here.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are presenting a dual opportunity for sport, allowing rights-holders to improve operational efficiencies and day-to-day decision making at the same time as they earn new sponsorship revenues.
Formula 1 is arguably better placed to capitalise on these opportunities than any other property given its highly technical engineering environment and its well-established reputation for showcasing technology sponsors.
Oliver Howard, vice president of motorsport rights sales for Wasserman, says the agency has seen a 418-per-cent increase in investment from technology and software brands in the motorsport in the four-year period between 2021 and 2025 while third-party research indicates a 40-per-cent year-on-year increase in references to AI in F1 press briefings and on the motorsport’s social media channels.
He thinks it is reductive to think of AI as a single sponsorship sector, given how pervasive it has become in every aspect of business. As a result, teams are splitting the category to deliver multiple revenue opportunities.
“The term ‘AI’ is so general now, and we’re seeing that in Formula One, to the point where teams are taking a nuanced approach to it, breaking down the category into sub-sectors so they can bring on multiple partners – such as machine learning, LLM [large language models], generative AI, AI-powered cyber security, supply chain management,” he says.
“Obviously that allows the teams to craft and tailor partnership without any conflicts and get more money at the end of the day, so it’s mutually beneficial, as long as there’s no massive overlap. A team might partner with a company focused on AI infrastructure, whilst also working with another one in predictive analytics.”
Wasserman provides brand advisory services to several firms operating in the space, as well as companies that embed AI within a broader suite of product capabilities. Its clients include Williams F1 title sponsor Atlassian and the team’s ‘official AI orchestration partner’ Airia AI. The agency also worked on an earlier deal between the Sauber team and Chinese AI company SenseTime.
Williams F1
Howard believes Williams F1’s approach to the category is an interesting case study in how teams can split up their sponsorship rights. Title sponsor Atlassian, for instance, is primarily focused on enabling the team to collaborate more effectively but, within this, it provides AI-powered search, chat functions and agents through its Rovo product to help users navigate its tools more effectively.
Airia AI, on the other hand, has assimilated all of the team’s business-critical data and is integrated across its entire technology stack to improve workflows in a number of different scenarios. This could include maximising the design of its car to get the most out of the next set of design regulations in 2026. The two brands are happy to co-exist in the team’s sponsorship portfolio with global technology consulting and service Brillio, which is applying its expertise in areas including AI to advise the team on how to deploy the technology.
According to Howard, the way teams approach AI often depends on the amount of headroom they have against the F1 cost cap, as even value-in-kind services from sponsors can eat into this spending allowance.
“Anything that increases the performance of the car obviously comes under the budget cap, so if those teams have the ability to invest in new technology, they’ll often seek partners that can contribute to performance and the innovation of the team. Others closer to the budget cap might lean towards a more a simple brand marketing collaboration,” he says.
F1 central sponsors
Formula 1 is also profiting from the AI category through central sponsorship agreements with technology firms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Lenovo. Both brands referenced AI in the press communications to announce expanded sponsorship deals with the series. A further global partner, Salesforce is also promoting its AI-powered Agentforce CRM product through both a global partner-level deal with the motorsport and a sponsorship deal with the McLaren F1 team.
Whereas team-level sponsorship deals have tended to focus on brand integrations and meeting a specific performance or efficiency objective, the central sponsorship agreements are often designed to deliver mass brand awareness or meet a broader strategic objective such as improving fan engagement and personalisation.
Premier League
Rights-holders from other sports have leveraged the technology in similar ways to F1. The English Premier League, for example, recently announced league-level sponsorship agreements with Microsoft and Adobe that both promised to use AI to improve fan engagement and deliver personalised experiences on the league’s digital platforms. The league cannot, however, offer the same brand building opportunities as the motorsport, as pitchside LED inventory at matches is often controlled by its clubs.
Microsoft is using its deal with the league to demonstrate the capabilities of Copilot, its generative AI chatbot, through an integration in the league’s newly designed digital app. Adobe’s remit involves using AI and its Adobe Experience platform to better understand Premier League fans’ interactions on its digital channels and deliver personalised marketing campaigns to them.
As is the case with the Williams F1 team, the brands are happy to co-exist in the sponsorship portfolio, seeing themselves as mutually beneficial. Adobe and Microsoft work closely together in other business areas and Adobe Experience Platform, which hosts the firm’s suite of marketing and content tools, will run on Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
Alexandra Willis, director of digital media and audience development for the league, says the Microsoft deal emerged after the league identified the best vendors to support its digital transformation strategy rather than from an outreach or tender from its commercial team. This is an evolution from the league’s prior agreement with Oracle which was more of a classic sponsorship agreement with few technology elements.
“When we started to develop this transformation strategy, which was intended to underpin part of the business’ future – whether that’s the future of the media business or the future of the sponsorship business, or however it might go – we were very clear that there is technology that we need, and we should be free to go and choose and select that technology,” says Willis.
“But we knew there was a natural role for a strategic partner to play in a) helping deliver that technology, but b) also helping us amplify the story of what we’re doing and bring added value and additional value to how we do that.”
She thinks rights-holders would be wise to take a flexible approach to the category to allow themselves space and room to manoeuvre should technology change and evolve.
“It’s not a purely separate category or thing that you can just put in your box and wrap a bow around. It’s everywhere, and it will be everywhere, and will continue to be everywhere. I think the best that people can do at the moment is say there are certain technology companies that have an understanding of what it is today and what it could be, and they can therefore help guide you in how to make the best of it,” she says.
“That’s ultimately where we’ve got to with Microsoft. It is not that they’re helping us deliver AI, because everyone is helping us deliver AI, but they’re helping advise us and consultant us on what the potential is and what the opportunity is, both in terms of what it means for our customers and how we deliver for our customers, but also how you work, and how can it help enable you to become a more effective, more efficient business.”
Head here to find out more about SportBusiness’ Global Sponsorship Report.
