The news: The National Hockey League (NHL) teamed up with Adobe to use AI tools to personalize fan engagement. Adobe is now the league’s official creative, marketing, and AI partner, per a news release.

The partnership has three components:

• GenAI content creation, powered by Adobe GenStudio, will help the NHL and all 32 teams deliver fan experiences across official websites, apps, social media, and digital advertising.
• Customer insights, powered by Adobe Experience Platform, will give the NHL and teams the ability to personalize content to fans in real time.
• Fan expression, powered by Adobe Express, is in the works and could give AI tools to fans to create shareable content from NHL-branded templates, such as team images, for social media.

Why this matters: Having an AI partner will help the NHL reach new levels of marketing personalization to engage more than 200 million fans worldwide.

• Hockey is having a cultural moment thanks to streaming shows like “Heated Rivalry” and “Off Campus,” and AI tools will help the league develop and launch content quickly to keep up with the speed of social media.
• This type of marketing versatility will also help the league execute its plan to bring hockey to more audiences while deepening connections with pre-existing fans.

Personalization can go further than meme-making given the granular view of Adobe’s AI ecosystem. Teams can meet fans with content geared toward their preferences, like favorite players, and real-time activities, such as when they’re analyzing stats.

The challenge: Fan-made content could be difficult to encourage and benefit from.

We expect that just 18.8% of the US population will use AI image generators this year and just 24.4% will do so by 2030. This lack of appetite will likely impede the NHL from capitalizing on the fan expression component of its AI partnership. That aspect isn’t yet fully fleshed out, per the press release, and may change.

Implications for sports marketers: The NHL’s AI partnership with Adobe will be a case study in finding the right balance between personalization and privacy. The league will have to monitor fan reception to determine how personalized components are received and make adjustments.

Appetite for AI-generated content is also being put to the test considering 74% of North American Gen Z consumers react at least slightly negatively to brand content made with AI, per Rival Technologies. The NHL will need to be careful when using these tools to avoid coming off as inauthentic or opportunistic.