Before Reading can start to think of the Premier League, they need to first get themselves out of League One and they currently sit just two points outside the top six.
They have not been in the top tier since 2012 and have been in League One for the past three campaigns after being relegated in 2023.
If they are to achieve promotion and stay in the Championship, then good player recruitment will be a key factor in their ability to do so.
Fenton claims the technology Reading now have available can break the traditional model around player signings as well as scouting.
“We brought in an AI platform that basically gives us access to data from players and leagues all around the world,” Fenton added.
“We now have a platform that will allow us to evaluate and look at players from all around the world, we’ve been using that to identify players and plan for our transfer windows so we get access to information about players that historically we would have never even known about.
“We still have that human approach here at Reading so we still have the scouting element but it’s just giving them more people to look at and hopefully finding these gems that are out there.
“Hopefully that will translate into better players coming in and then propelling us through the divisions.”
Manager Leam Richardson and his backroom team have been in place at Reading since October and are yet to use this technology directly with the players.
Fenton said, however, that involvement with the first team is likely to increase as time goes by, and could revolutionise the way the coaching staff operate.
“We haven’t hit the players yet with the AI side, It’s been very much allowing the coaches to install their philosophy and what they want to do,” he added.
“But the evolution and where we want to take this is to be completely numbers and, data-driven, we’ll see if we can analyse the game differently, from player analysis down to our scouting, could AI find a way that we could beat a team differently?
“We’ve seen teams across the world who are doing it around set pieces, how they can use AI for corners, throw-ins, free kicks and be more effective and it’s just how do we bring that into the football team here and start utilising it on a regular basis.”