The National Football League's ubiquitous — and oft-maligned — Surface tablets are getting an AI-infused upgrade, officials from the league and Microsoft tell Axios.
Why it matters: The league is trying to give coaches faster access to the data they want, while stopping short of letting the AI make decisions.
Driving the news: The NFL and Microsoft on Wednesday announced an expanded, multiyear extension to their longtime partnership.
As part of the upgrade, Microsoft is providing teams 2,500 new Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ tablets leaguewide.
The tablets, which arrived before the start of the 2025 preseason, allow coaches and players to use Copilot to quickly pull up video clips from specific scenarios such as scoring plays or those on a certain down.
Zoom in: Coaches up in the booth will have access to AI copilots that help them navigate massive Excel spreadsheets to track things like personnel groupings and snap counts.
What if a coach hates AI??