In the not-so-distant past, a business-focused technology company could slap its logo onto a stadium, vehicle or athlete in a tech-savvy sport and connect its brand and products to the action.
Since the introduction of Generative AI within the last year, however, firms like Bangalore-based Infosys increasingly have to use those partnerships as B2B demos for their products’ capabilities.
Before this year’s US Open, for example, Infosys announced partnerships with multi-time Grand Slam champions Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek, with each player using Infosys AI-powered analytics from live matches and historical data to improve their training and focus their match strategy.
“Although tennis and technology may seem quite different at first, there’s so much in common—including strategic thinking, learning and developing in every situation, the ability to evolve your game, and adjust,” Swiatek said.
Infosys has already spent the better part of a decade working with the ATP Tour, Roland-Garros, the Australian Open and The International Tennis Hall of Fame. Infosys has used its Cobalt cloud services to help predict wins, while implementing its recently debuted Topaz AI platform to provide commentary, coverage and video for the events.
While Infosys has provided similar services for Madison Square Garden, it has also entered partnerships with the Financial Times, The Economist and Bloomberg to use its technology to enhance their reporting. It’s also teamed with MIT to make its Cobalt cloud product less daunting for businesses.
Infosys CMO Sumit Virmani has watched the company’s brand value grow 84% since 2020 to nearly $13 billion today. He spoke with Adweek about Infosys’ partnerships, its focus on AI and how showing its technology in action has made its business-to-business life easier.
Adweek: How has Generative AI and products like Topaz affected recent Infosys marketing?
Sumit Virmani: We have been leveraging AI in a material way for a very long time.