Beyond the Diamond: The Rockies Bet Big on AI to Revolutionize Fan Experience

DENVER, CO – June 16, 2026 – The crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd at Coors Field are timeless, but the business operations supporting them are entering a new technological epoch. The Colorado Rockies' recently announced multi-year partnership with Dialpad, naming the firm its Official AI Communications Provider, is far more than a typical sponsorship deal. It represents a strategic pivot towards a future where every fan interaction is data-driven, personalized, and powered by a new class of "agentic" artificial intelligence. This move offers a clear signal for investors and executives: the race for fan loyalty is no longer just won on the field, but in the cloud.

For years, the fan experience for most sports teams has been a fragmented affair of siloed departments. A call to the ticket office was a separate universe from a query to the team store or a complaint about a gameday issue. The new partnership aims to demolish these silos. “We’re thrilled to partner with Dialpad and welcome them to the Rockies family,” said Rockies Senior Director of Information Technology Michael Bush. “Their AI-enabled solutions will help us better serve our fans and play an important role in enhancing our day-to-day communications.”

From Hold Music to Hyper-Personalization

The core of this partnership is the deployment of Dialpad's AI platform across the Rockies' entire fan-facing infrastructure, from ticket sales and service to internal communications. The goal is to move beyond the frustratingly reactive model of customer service and into a proactive, seamless fan relationship. This isn't about replacing human agents, but augmenting them with powerful tools that provide a panoramic view of fan sentiment and operational bottlenecks.

Key to this transformation is Dialpad's ability to analyze conversations across voice and digital channels in real time. The platform's AI can identify emerging issues—such as a sudden spike in calls about a ticketing promotion or parking confusion—allowing the organization to respond before a minor hiccup becomes a major frustration. Its real-time sentiment analysis provides a constant pulse on fan mood, while features like AiCSAT automatically generate customer satisfaction scores for every interaction without needing post-call surveys, offering immediate insight into what drives positive or negative experiences.

For the fan, the practical benefits are tangible. AI-powered intelligent routing and digital self-service options promise to drastically reduce wait times, connecting fans to the right person or information on the first try. Instead of navigating complex phone trees, a fan could state their need in natural language and be routed instantly. This efficiency is critical in a high-volume business like professional sports, where other organizations leveraging AI have seen wait times for services drop by as much as 75%. The ultimate vision is a hyper-personalized experience, where the organization understands a fan's history and preferences to deliver more relevant communication and faster resolutions.

'Making the Right Call': A Sponsorship with Substance

While the operational integration is the engine of this partnership, the public-facing component is a masterclass in brand synergy. Dialpad is the new presenting sponsor of the "Call Under Review" feature during all 81 of the Rockies' home games. Each time an umpire's call is challenged and sent to replay review, Dialpad's brand will be front and center.

This is far more than a simple logo placement. The sponsorship creates a powerful and intuitive metaphor for Dialpad's core value proposition. For the umpires on the field, making the right call requires reviewing every angle with advanced replay technology. For a business leader, making the right call requires a similar level of visibility into customer conversations and operational data—a visibility Dialpad's AI provides.

Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad, articulated this synergy perfectly. “In baseball and in business, making the right call starts with seeing the whole field. That’s what Dialpad gives the Rockies,” he stated. “Our AI helps the Rockies listen to, understand, and act on fan conversation as it happens, so the Rockies can make the right call in the moment — not after the inning’s over.”

This theme is being extended into a broader content series titled, "Are you making the right call?", which explores how AI-powered insights help business leaders move beyond fragmented data. This transforms a simple sponsorship into an educational platform, using the high-stakes, easily understood world of baseball to explain the complex benefits of its technology to a wide audience of potential enterprise clients.

The Ultimate Proving Ground: Agentic AI Steps Up to the Plate

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this deal is its role as a showcase for what Dialpad calls "agentic AI." This represents a leap beyond the more common assistive AI (like chatbots that answer simple questions) to an AI that can operate autonomously to achieve complex goals. Agentic AI is designed to perceive context, plan multi-step actions, execute them, and learn from the results without constant human oversight.

Professional sports provides the ultimate proving ground for this advanced technology. The environment is characterized by massive, sudden spikes in interaction volume (e.g., when a star player is traded or playoff tickets go on sale), an emotionally invested customer base, and a need for real-time responsiveness. If agentic AI can perform here, it can perform anywhere.

In practice, this means Dialpad's AI agents can handle end-to-end tasks like tracking a merchandise order or managing a complex ticketing request, only handing off to a human agent when necessary—with the full context of the interaction preserved. Internally, features like Ai Live Coach can proactively guide service agents during live calls, suggesting answers and next-best actions. After a call, automated summaries and action items streamline productivity for the entire staff. This ability to not only understand but act is what separates agentic AI from its predecessors and promises a new level of operational efficiency.

The AI Arms Race in America's Pastime

The Rockies-Dialpad partnership is not happening in a vacuum. It is a prominent example of a sweeping trend across the entire sports industry, which is rapidly adopting AI to gain a competitive edge. With the global AI in sports market projected to surge from just over $10 billion in 2025 to more than $70 billion by 2035, and with over 80% of sports organizations already investing in the technology, the race is on.

Competitors abound, each tackling a different facet of the sports ecosystem. IBM's Watsonx has powered fan experiences for Wimbledon and the US Open, while companies like Stats Perform provide deep analytics for performance and media. Even at Coors Field, other AI is at play, with Xtract One Technologies using AI for frictionless security screening and Amazon's technology speeding up concession lines.

What makes Dialpad's strategy a red flag for its competitors is its focus on providing a single, unified AI communications platform for the entire organization. Rather than offering a point solution for one department, its platform connects the front office, ticketing, venue operations, and partnerships. This holistic approach is a key differentiator, and the company is scaling it aggressively. With a growing portfolio of partners across the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL, including the San Antonio Spurs and Florida Panthers, Dialpad is positioning itself as the go-to provider for AI-native transformation in sports. As the Rockies aim to build a deeper connection with their fanbase through technology, Dialpad gets a high-visibility stadium to demonstrate how its agentic AI can perform under pressure, a signal that will resonate far beyond the outfield walls.