Alibaba brings cloud-based AI innovation to Milano Cortina Winter Olympics

The system allows for more efficient operations during this year's Winter Olympics.

Courtesy: Alibaba

Utilizing AI capabilities in the Winter Games

Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to deploy advanced cloud and AI technologies for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

This partnership builds on previous collaboration during the Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022, and Paris 2024.

These technologies are designed to enhance viewing experience for global audiences, improve operational efficiency for broadcasters, and create new ways to capture, manage, and preserve Olympic content at scale.

For Milano Cortina 2026, we are applying cloud and AI capabilities to make broadcasts more dynamic, workflows more efficient, and Olympic moments more accessible to audiences around the world, said Dr. Feifei Li, Senior Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group.

For this year's games, Alibaba Cloud is introducing upgraded Real-Time 360-degree Replay systems that deliver immersive replays with fluid camera movement and stroboscopic visual effects. Powered by an AI algorithm that separates athletes from complex backgrounds such as snow and ice, the system enables three-dimensional reconstructions of key moments in as little as 15 to 20 seconds—fast enough for live broadcast use.

The system will be deployed across 17 sports and disciplines, including ice hockey, freestyle skiing, figure skating, and ski jumping. In addition to the BulletTime effects first introduced at Beijing 2022 to provide frame-freeze and slow-motion views, the platform now features a new Spacetime Slices capability that visualizes multiple phases of an athlete’s movement in a single composite image.

OBS is also in the early development phase of the Automatic Media Description System powered by Alibaba's Qwen advanced large language model. The system automatically identifies athletes and key moments, generates event descriptions, and tags video assets within seconds, significantly reducing manual processing time.

When it comes to cloud, the Live Cloud platform for Milano Cortina 2026 will support 39 broadcasters, delivering 428 live video feeds, including 26 in ultra-high definition streams, along with 72 audio feeds. By replacing traditional satellite links and dedicated transmission lines, cloud-based delivery reduces cost, setup time, and technical complexity, while improving flexibility and resilience.

For the first time, the OBS Olympic Video Player will deliver high-definition live streams using Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure, enabling smaller broadcasters to access professional-grade broadcast capabilities without heavy upfront investment.


Milano Cortina 2026 will also see the largest volume of ready-to-use digital assets in Olympic history. More than 5,000 short-form pieces, including behind-the-scenes footage, highlights, and emotional reactions, will be distributed through OBS Content+, a cloud-based platform powered by Alibaba Cloud.

The IOC has also introduced its first large-language-model-based system in Olympic history, powered by Alibaba’s Qwen models. The initiative, known as "Olympic AI Assistants," supports fan engagement worldwide and internal operations across the Olympic ecosystem.

The Olympic AI Assistant, embedded on the IOC's global website olympics.com, provides multilingual conversational support and real-time event information, allowing fans to access official Olympic Games content through a chat-based interface.

The same Qwen-powered technology is being deployed at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, where visitors will have access to personalized AI audio guides that enhance the museum experience.

Internally, the IOC has launched an AI Assistant - powered by Alibaba's Qwen large language model—on its secure portal for National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The AI tool enables NOC staff to locate documents, policies, and grant guidelines through natural language queries, with built-in multilingual translation support.

In parallel, Alibaba Cloud continues to enhance Sports AI, a cloud-based media archiving solution first introduced at the Paris 2024 Games. The upgraded solution includes AI tagging, video search, and conversational search, making the Olympics archive instantly searchable and more accessible.

Managing more than eight petabytes of historical Olympic media, the system utilizes Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary AI algorithms to automate tagging, categorization, and multimodal search across decades of content. New conversational search capabilities, powered by Alibaba’s Qwen, allow users to retrieve specific clips using simple spoken or written commands.

By integrating with the IOC's media asset platform, Flex, the solution enables fully automatic tagging of Olympic multimedia assets, turning previously unused media assets into a living, searchable knowledge library.

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