For years, artificial intelligence companies fought for developers, enterprises and productivity users. Now they are chasing something far more powerful, emotion.
OpenAI’s partnership with Lionel Messi may look like another celebrity endorsement. In reality, it reflects a broader shift unfolding across technology and sports.
AI companies are increasingly seeking cultural relevance, while sports organizations and brands are using artificial intelligence to deepen fan engagement and create new revenue opportunities.
With football commanding billions of followers worldwide, the world’s most popular sport is rapidly becoming AI’s next battleground.
ChatGPT User Base Grows
The timing of OpenAI’s partnership with Lionel Messi is hardly accidental.
According to Reuters, ChatGPT has around 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million paying subscribers. Reuters also reported that OpenAI’s annualized revenue has reached approximately $10 billion, with enterprise customers contributing about 40% of that total.
Those numbers underline how quickly OpenAI has scaled. But scale alone is no guarantee of long-term dominance.
Competition from Google, Anthropic and Meta has intensified. Acquiring new users is becoming harder, making engagement and retention increasingly important.
Football offers something few industries can match. Fans are not simply consumers. They are communities built around loyalty, identity and emotion.
For OpenAI, Messi represents an opportunity to connect with audiences beyond work and productivity.
Sports AI Adoption Rises
The partnership also arrives at a time when artificial intelligence is becoming deeply embedded in sports.
According to Stats Perform’s 2025 Fan Engagement and Monetisation Survey, which gathered responses from more than 700 sports media executives, organizations that had already adopted AI were three times more likely to report easier content monetisation than those that had not.
Executives identified personalization, storytelling and automation as some of the areas where AI could reshape fan experiences.
Deloitte has similarly highlighted how analytics and digital technologies are helping sports organizations improve fan engagement and create new sponsorship opportunities.
The shift reflects changing consumer behavior.
Fans increasingly expect personalized experiences through mobile applications, streaming services and social media platforms. Artificial intelligence allows organizations to deliver those experiences at scale.
That has turned AI from a back-office technology into a commercial tool.
AI In Sports Expands
OpenAI is far from the first company to recognize this opportunity.
IBM has used artificial intelligence to power fan experiences at Wimbledon and the Masters Tournament. Amazon Web Services has developed machine-learning applications with Formula One, helping teams and broadcasters provide insights and data-driven storytelling.
Across sports, technology companies are increasingly positioning AI as a way to strengthen relationships with audiences.
OpenAI’s partnership with Messi therefore represents entry into a race that has already begun.
The difference is that football offers unparalleled global reach. No other sport combines such scale with such emotional intensity.
Messi Brings More Than Fame
Messi’s appeal extends well beyond trophies and statistics. His move to Inter Miami in 2023 demonstrated his ability to drive commercial activity.
Adidas reported extraordinary demand for Messi jerseys after his arrival in Major League Soccer. Apple also benefited from surging interest in MLS Season Pass following his move to the United States.
That track record makes Messi more than a celebrity ambassador. He has repeatedly proven capable of attracting audiences and boosting engagement. For OpenAI, that matters.
Consumers often struggle to understand what generative AI actually does. Associating the technology with one of the world’s most recognizable athletes makes it more approachable and culturally relevant.
The partnership humanizes a technology that many people still perceive as abstract.
Football Marketing Evolves
OpenAI’s move is also part of a wider transformation in sports marketing.
Earlier this month, Coca-Cola and Footballco launched “José vs. Mourinho”, an AI-powered content series featuring a digital twin of legendary football manager José Mourinho.
Built using Google Cloud technologies, the campaign aims to create more than 200 pieces of content throughout the FIFA World Cup 2026 and distribute them across platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X.
The initiative highlights how brands are increasingly moving beyond traditional advertising.
Instead of one-off campaigns, companies want continuous engagement that keeps audiences interacting before, during and after sporting events.
Artificial intelligence makes that possible at a scale that conventional production methods struggle to match.
The similarities with OpenAI’s strategy are difficult to ignore. Both are betting that football and AI can create stronger, more frequent interactions with fans.
Attention Becomes Priority
The bigger significance of the Messi partnership lies in what it reveals about the future of AI competition.
Technology companies once competed primarily on features and computing power. Today, attention is becoming just as important.
With ChatGPT already approaching a billion weekly users, OpenAI’s challenge is no longer simply attracting people. It is becoming part of their daily lives.
Sports provide a natural pathway. Matches create stories. Rivalries create communities. Fans return every week.
That recurring engagement is valuable in a digital economy where attention has become one of the world’s most contested resources.
OpenAI’s deal with Messi therefore represents much more than a marketing campaign. It signals that AI companies are increasingly looking beyond software and toward culture itself.
And with sports organizations, brands and technology firms all embracing artificial intelligence, the future of fandom may be shaped as much by algorithms as by athletes.
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