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CLIENT
INDUSTRY
Sports
FEATURING
Anthropic
Microsoft Azure
Engineering and AI
1.15 million
fans tracked across disparate data sources
49
fan microsegments defined— up from six
10%+
uplift in ticket sales expected season-over-season
PwC helped the Mariners engineer an intelligent AI platform so they could enhance fan experience and sales.
Interview with:
Chris Kennedy
Senior Vice President of Strategy & Analytics
Seattle Mariners
What sparked the need for change?
“We saw an opportunity to transform how we understand and engage our fan base. Our historical approach primarily relied on broad, survey-driven segmentation—with only about 50,000 fans weighing in—and marketing campaigns with limited differentiation—relying principally on past purchase behavior, with minimal variation in messaging, timing, or channel across most of our fan base. Decisions were driven by instinct, not data. And yet we had a trove of data across customer relationship management, ticketing and engagement systems. Our teams didn’t have a simple way to use it. That's why we collaborated with PwC to engineer an AI solution that could crack open that data—quickly—to tell us which fans to reach, when to reach them, and what would actually move the needle on engagement and sales.”
What solution did the teams unlock by working together?
“With the support of PwC, we built Mariners Intelligence, an AI-driven model designed to sharpen our fiscal efficiency and elevate the fan experience. We used Claude Code and Azure to unify 1.15 million fan records and develop three machine-learning models based on fan demographics, past engagement behavior, and their propensity to engage. That allowed us to move from six broad segments to 49 actionable microsegments—a game-changer for precision targeting. PwC brought engineering excellence and domain expertise to deliver the platform architecture, design the models, and drive execution end-to-end, while our analytics team pressure-tested the models and wired the tool into our daily operations. What would’ve taken our marketing team days or weeks to assemble, Mariners Intelligence is designed to deliver within minutes. That speed will help us engage fans every day—not just seasonally—and in ways that feel personal and relevant. We expect this to fuel at least 10% growth in our ticket sales year over year.”
Where did tech innovation meet human ingenuity?
“PwC worked with us from the first day using AI tools to design, model, and prototype the outcome — changing how we engineered Mariners Intelligence and our ways of working. We accomplished what traditionally takes months in a manner of weeks: establishing data pipelines, developing and refining machine learning models to help drive customer insights, creating the agentic harness delivering end-user interfaces—all from scratch. It’s built with and powered by Anthropic, deployed on Microsoft Azure, and capable of orchestrating AI agents that analyze models and generate campaign recommendations that are ready to execute. One example: Mariners Intelligence is built to help pinpoint which fans are most likely to attend a particular game on a specific day of the week—even factoring in time of day—and then draft marketing copy to reach them. Email, text, or whatever channel a fan prefers—it adapts. AI surfaces opportunities, but our revenue operations and marketing teams make the final calls. Every recommendation includes a full decision trace, so we understand what’s driving it. That transparency builds trust and empowers our teams to move faster and act with confidence.”
What was the real-world impact of approaching things differently?
“Mariners Intelligence is a first-of-its-kind AI platform in professional sports. And it’s not a one-time solution. It’s built to be an operational engine—one that will continuously improve. With PwC, we’ve built the foundation to transform our periodic marketing campaigns with real-time, game-by-game targeting. That means we’re better positioned to meet fans in a whole new way—delivering the right message at the right moment. We’re ready to scale, with plans to expand the platform to reach new audiences and support concerts and other marquee events. This goes beyond dashboards and reports. This is next generation. It’s a new way of operating—and it’s positioned to redefine what data-driven decision-making looks like in professional sports.”
“PwC helped us harness the full power of AI so we’re not just optimizing our business operations—we're building the capability to empower every team to make smarter decisions and reimagine what’s possible for the fan experience, fiscal performance, and venue utilization.”
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