ESPN is looking to change the way people receive information. This is due to AI and the ability to personalize data.

For a struggling network, this is a big step forward. The leader in sports is developing a new streaming service. It wants to make the premiere digital sports platform. This is something that everyone should take notice of.

Will this be successful? Is it enough to save the struggling network?

It is far too early to tell if either of these will be answered in the affirmative. However, there is a larger lesson here.

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ESPN Bringing Personalization

Details are slim regarding the specifics of the platform. Many are speculating that it will be heavily integrated with AI.

For example:

And there will be artificial intelligence, with Pitaro referencing NBC’s AI-generated Olympics recaps, voiced by a digital recreation of sportscaster Al Michaels. “I can’t commit to this, but we are thinking around that time we could have a personalized SportsCenter [powered by AI],” Pitaro says.

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Another feature that is going to become commonplace is the personalization of information. With the new platform, it is likely that individuals will be able to pull up the information for the teams they want.

This makes a lot of sense and is in alignment with what AI is going to bring to the online world. No longer is it information for the masses.

One such scenario that I mentioned was the change from making videos for the masses to "making them for one". It is difficult to create something that masses desire. AI provides the ability to cater precisely to one.

ESPN could do this with its platform. Whether it is information for individual teams or the ability to have voices and avatars present specifics, the norm will be personalization.

The Age of Big Data

This is a term that was used over a decade ago. The idea of "Big Data" was predicted to be our future. It is obviously the case since we know the volumes of data generated each year is only growing.

That said, if we look at how things are evolving, it is specialized data. Large volumes of information means nothing. It is the ability to pull what is required in a timely manner.

Here is where vector databases come in. The ability to provide relevant data quickly is where they excel. We see this with recommend engines and other tools that are becoming commonplace.

Personalization is tied to specialized data. It extends into the concept of digital identities whereby our digital activities feed into our profiles. An application like ESPN can utilize this. It becomes a feedback mechanism, helping the application deliver better information.

Web 3.0 is going to follow a similar path. They need to specialize the data that is available.

Over the next few years, we will see the algorithms and curation getting better. This is where we will see the utility of these systems improve.

The ongoing problem within the entertainment world is the fragmentation of the media. This pulls eyeballs into more areas, making it more difficult to keep the masses coming back to their platform. We see this with most streaming services as the overall trend is for them to struggle.

With the advancement of AI, it is going to be easier for other platforms to integrate the services. As always it comes back to the data. Could X or Meta provide some of the personalized services? This is what remains to be seen.