Sports broadcasting is undergoing a quiet revolution. As the new season of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series gets underway this weekend in Brazil, Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled a new generative AI platform designed to support, not replace, the human expertise behind live cycling commentary.
Cycling Central Intelligence (CCI), developed in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), will debut at the season opener in Araxá, Minas Gerais. It aims to make sense of an increasingly data-rich sport, providing real-time access to rider stats, historical race data and location-specific insights—all through natural language queries.
While the use of AI in sport is not new, the approach here is different. Rather than automating commentary or replacing production teams with algorithms, CCI is designed to do something more nuanced: give presenters and producers the tools they need to tell better stories, faster.
Enhancing rather than replacing human insight
Chris Ball, Vice President of Cycling Events at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, described the platform as an enabler of deeper storytelling. “What makes CCI truly revolutionary is how it enhances and complements the human expertise that makes sports broadcasting special. Our commentators and producers bring unmatched levels of experience and passion for the sport, and through our partnership with AWS, CCI ensures they can expertly craft the compelling stories and insights that our viewers love and that will keep them engaged.”
The collaboration also formalises AWS’s role as the Official Cloud Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Provider for the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series. But the emphasis remains squarely on augmenting human capabilities.
“By handling time-consuming research and data synthesis tasks, CCI frees up WBD’s talented commentary teams to focus on their passion and ability to capture the excitement of live sports,” Samira Panah Bakhtiar, General Manager for Media & Entertainment, Games, and Sports at AWS, said.
The technical infrastructure behind CCI reflects this philosophy. Built on Amazon Bedrock, and using Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 model, it connects multiple AWS services—Amazon Textract for document processing, Amazon Translate for multilingual coverage, and Amazon Comprehend for structuring information—into a unified knowledge base. Commentators can then access this through a conversational interface.
Setting a precedent for generative AI in live sport
The broader implications for sport broadcasting are significant. As rights holders and broadcasters face growing pressure to do more with less, particularly across fragmented digital platforms, tools like CCI could offer a path forward. Rather than stripping away the spontaneity and personality that make live sport compelling, this approach to AI looks to reinforce it.
That balance will be tested across the 16-round season, with Warner Bros. Discovery indicating that further features will be added as the platform evolves. Crucially, the company insists editorial control will remain firmly in human hands.
Working in collaboration with AWS teams, WBD Sports Europe designed the system to serve the needs of broadcasters, not technologists. The initial proof-of-concept was based on a clear understanding of the gaps in current live production workflows—especially around rapid information access during races.
If successful, CCI may point to a future where generative AI becomes as integral to live sport coverage as the camera or the microphone, yet remains invisible to the viewer. The goal is not automation, but amplification.
As the series gets underway in Brazil, fans tuning into Eurosport, TNT Sports, Max, and discovery+ may not notice anything different on the surface. But behind the scenes, a new layer of intelligence is quietly shaping the way cycling is experienced.
