The league-wide rollout equips clubs with 2,500+ Surface Copilot+ PCs, an AI-powered Sideline Viewing System and a new analyst dashboard for faster in-game decisions and operations.
The NFL has extended its long-running collaboration with Microsoft, ushering in “a new era of AI innovation” that will touch everything from sideline decision-making to scouting and back-office operations.
On August 20, the league announced technologies including Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI will be deployed as the 2025 season begins.
“We are entering a new era of innovation at the NFL through our collaboration with Microsoft to deploy AI across key areas of the business,” said Gary Brantley, the NFL’s Chief Information Officer.
“Enhancing the league is a responsibility we take seriously, and Microsoft has been a trusted sideline technology partner for over a decade. With Microsoft’s AI technologies, including Copilot, there are tremendous opportunities to elevate the game day experience for our clubs and deliver an even more compelling product to our fans.”
What is new on game day
Every club’s Sideline Viewing System (SVS) has been upgraded with more than 2,500 Surface Copilot+ PCs, supporting 32 teams, roughly 1,800 players and more than 1,000 coaches and football staff.
A new GitHub Copilot-built filter lets coaches and players pull up key moments such as penalties, fumbles and scoring plays in real time, reducing manual scrubbing and speeding communication between the sideline and the booth.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay underlined how thin the decision window is on an NFL sideline. “The game’s not stopping. You have 40 seconds between each play or 25 seconds out of a clock stoppage. These decisions happen quickly,” he said.
In that chaos, he sees AI-enabled tools as a way to strip out distractions and keep choices aligned with the plan rather than the moment. The Rams, he said, have already embraced the approach.
“This is a space that we’ve really leaned heavily into… It’s coming and it’s going to be a valuable tool. You can’t run away from it.”
Reliability and security on the sideline
Microsoft and the NFL emphasised robustness across venues and weather. Charging carts provide power and hard-wired ethernet if Wi-Fi fails, and the SVS connects to NFL-managed Windows servers to protect sensitive game data.
“We play in all different types of stadiums. There’re covered domes. There’s weather exposure. The device has to work in all these conditions. The battery has to be reliable. And it also has to have connectivity across all regions of the world,” says Aaron Amendolia, the NFL’s deputy CIO.
“You’ve got 2,500 devices in play here. There’s a partnership (with Microsoft) to make sure these devices have all the right patches for security, that the device itself is robust, that we’ve built security into the designs of our applications, and that the AI has governance and security and trust around it. Because this is our most sensitive data around the game.”
Analysts get a Copilot boost
Teams will also use a Microsoft 365 Copilot-powered dashboard in Excel on a Surface Laptop 7. Analysts gain control of the spreadsheet 30 minutes before kickoff in the coaches’ booth to accelerate trend-spotting, from personnel groupings to snap counts.
“We have people up in the booth who are responsible for charting a lot of the things that Copilot can sequence and segment in a much more accelerated manner, and so that’s going to allow us to be able to make better in-game decisions,” McVay says.
“And it’s going to increase the overall efficiency of what we’re trying to get to our players in real-time. It’s going to be a big deal for us.”
Beyond the sideline
The partnership also extends to talent pathways and club operations.
At the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, coaches and scouts used an app built with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry to generate real-time insights on more than 300 prospects. Individual clubs such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings have used Copilot for marketing, promotions and fan engagement, with additional work under way on operations dashboards and Copilot-powered game summaries.
“The NFL and Microsoft partnership is entering a new era, and we’re proud the league is once again putting its trust in Microsoft to bring AI to the NFL,” said Bryson Gordon, Corporate Vice President, Global Marketing at Microsoft.
“Extending our work together is more than just a football story, it’s a blueprint for transformation. Whether you’re preparing for the championship or running a global enterprise, the principles are the same: insights matter, preparation is essential, and the ability to act quickly is critical.”
As the season begins, McVay framed the direction of travel: “When I look at when I started coaching back in 2008 to where it is now, it’s amazing to me. The amount of information that’s at your fingertips is so valuable. When you look at the accelerated pace at which this is coming into our game and what a prominent part of our game it’s become, it’s important to embrace it. Because you’ll be behind if you don’t.”
