Chinese smartphone and computer manufacturer, Lenovo (联想), announced its partnership with the 2026 FIFA World Cup back in mid-October, but what that partnership meant beyond pitch-side advertising was still up for grabs. Recent developments have shed light on how the brand will use AI to aid football fever.
Ever keen to connect with the everyday consumer, these developments come in the form of a new initiative called 999 Ways AI Brings Joy to Football – a multimedia push that positions artificial intelligence as a tool to bring fans closer to the game. The backbone of the initiative is a campaign film called Chasing the Joy of Football. In it, we see the changing attitudes to football support in China through slogans scrawled and banners waved. The picture is one that positions Chinese fans as in it for the love of the game, not just the win.
It’s a neat point to raise. By doing so Lenovo can deftly introduce another key element of their initiative: the Lenovo Tianxi AI Football Agent (联想天禧 AI 足球智能体). They say it’s the first full-cycle AI viewing companion. If that’s too much of a mouthful to get your teeth around, understand it as an agent can answer real-time match questions and provide data insights.
Offline activations have been rolled out too. At Guangdong Super League football matches, Lenovo has introduced a robotic dog to do traditional lion-dances and perform intelligent inspection tasks. Recently large crowds were drawn to an event in Shenzhen where Lenovo hosted AI-aided shoot-out challenges and showcased a ThinkBook laptop with an extendable screen, perfect for watching the game.
Lenovo’s back-of-the-net moment in all this is not how they’ve landed a very high-profile partnership, or even that they’ve been able to tie their brand to very real feelings of joy. It’s in uniting these wins with activations that treat AI less as a gimmick and more as participation infrastructure. In doing so, Lenovo’s AI-powered products have earnt their pitch-side place.
