How A.I. is Powering Fan Engagement in 2019

In the 21st century, sports teams and arenas need proper artificial intelligence solutions to simplify their overall operations as well as improve the in-stadium product.

For example, Satisfi Labs assists Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE) with a variety of A.I.-related services including renewal and digital ticketing support. They also help Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment (AMBSE) gather critical data to improve fan experience at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

In this webinar sponsored by Satisfi Labs, Satisfi Labs SVP of Sports, Entertainment, and Tourism Courtney Jeffries, MSE Sr. Director of Business Intelligence Adam Falkson, and Director of Fan Experience at AMBSE Georgia O’Donoghue join FOS CEO Adam White to talk about how A.I. is currently impacting the sport industry.

READ MORE: Why MiLB is Turning to AI to Open New Doors

Edited highlights appear below:

What are some main pain points for teams when it comes to A.I.? (10:50)

Jeffries: “Satisfi takes a really holistic look at the front office. There’s marketing, there’s ticketing, food and beverage, merchandise, stadium operations. This virtual employee [that artificial intelligence serves as] is designed to absorb all of this information and content from a team… through a feed… Whatever information that a particular brand or venue or team wants to supply, it will in-turn answer those questions… The more information that teams give it access to, the better the employee. But [the number one question Satisfi gets] is, ‘How do we inform our business strategy to generate more revenue?'”

How is anecdotal data collected by Satisfi impacting changes in business strategy vs. quantitative data? (28:05)

O’Donoghue: “Anecdotal, to me, is the magic sauce here. That’s the information that we’re getting from Satisfi that we are not getting anywhere else because it is in the moment and it’s raw… The fact that we are getting the real-time questioning, that’s the data that we really use to change what is happening in the building. It’s pretty clear where we are not having good messaging out there or where we are having bad experiences.”

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What is important for teams/brands to benchmark in terms of behavioral data gathered from A.I.? (40:14)

Falkson: “Ticket-purchase activity, email-engagement activity, when people arrive at the venue… We’re actually going to be working with a third-party vendor to feed all of that information into their A.I. learning. We send them [anonymous] fan information that shows what flags are checked off. For example, they’re a Caps fan, Ovi is their favorite player, they have two kids, they’re a size medium… Then we feed that all in, and it spits back what we should be doing with this type of fan. This is what we should be offering to them, and this is when you should be offering it to them.”

What has fan reception been to chatting with bot for fan experience/customer service? (58:25)

Falkson: “You’ve got to get the answers right. You’re never going to please everybody, but if we’ve got 1,000 responses coming in and 980 of them are satisfied directly with the content, that’s pretty darn good. We always make a point that it will eventually revert to a response that [if the bot can’t give them a good answer] it tells them how they can get in touch with someone who can. It’s never ultimately going to end in a dead end where they get nothing. At worst, we will eventually get them the contact information for an actual person.”

Learn more about Satisfi Labs by visiting their website and following them on Twitter.