Sportswear brand Under Armour implements AI in its latest player-led campaign to create what it calls the ‘ultimate team talk’, developed in partnership with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Antonio Rudiger.

Brought to life by British actor Ashley Walters, the hair-raising speech leverages the power of AI and state-of-the-art language model technologies to create the perfect motivational team talk.

Input from professional players Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Laura Freigang (Eintracht Frankfurt), Alex Greenwood (Manchester City), Jayde Riviere (Manchester United), and Reuell Walters (Arsenal) helped give the speech a realistic coaching perspective.

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“Under Armour empowers athletes who strive for more. Training the mind and finding motivation sometimes gets neglected in that pursuit, even though it is an essential factor in reaching peak performance. Listening to this speech and internalising its messages will give team sport athletes a competitive advantage,” Under Armour managing director EMEA, Kara Trent, said.

The execution forms part of Under Armour’s returning ‘Protect This House’ campaign, which kicks off on August 14 and is the result of a synthesis of sports psychology literature and real-life and cinematic speeches.

“Under Armour has always been a brand that resonated with me because of their focus on determination and hard work,” Hollywood star Ashley Walters said.

“Looking back on my own life, those are the traits that have gotten me this far. Bringing this speech to life will instil these values into the next generation of young athletes.”