AI is all the rage these days — everything with even just a hint of a generative algorithm being hailed as the next biggest productivity booster — so it’s perhaps no surprise that Chelsea have found an AI company willing to splurge some cash and become our front-of-shirt sponsor, at least for the rest of the season.
The club have announced a multi-year official partnership with IFS, “the world’s leading provider of Industrial AI”, where “Industrial AI” is actually a catch-all trademarked term by IFS, which itself stands for the incredibly generic “Industrial and Financial Systems”. The only reason we’re sure that name wasn’t AI-generated is because this Swedish company was in business well before the AI bubble was even a twinkle in the stock market’s eyes.
If you want to read big words with generic promises, I encourage you to check out the Chelsea’s official announcement. My eyes glazed over in paragraph two. We’re now positioned at the “forefront of football’s technological evolution”, don’t you know!? “By harnessing the power of IFS AI to connect people, assets and intelligence in real time, the club is sharpening our competitive edge on the pitch while elevating the experience for millions of fans worldwide.” Ugh.
The funny part is that this only solves the front-of-shirt sponsorship conundrum for the next few months. The partnership with IFS may be for many years (it’s not specified for how long), but their name will appear on the front of the shirt only for the rest of the season — similar to deals with Infinite Athlete and DAMAC the last couple years.