Iwao Fusillo started as the N.Y. Jets’ Chief Data & Analytics Officer in January, overseeing both business and football analytics. Since, his primary focuses have been two-fold, he told SBJ -- developing internal analytics applications (e.g., for coaching/scouting or business intelligence) and continuing to drive AI usage throughout the organization. The latter is an effort team owner Woody Johnson formally began two years ago. Fusillo said 91% of the Jets’ front office now uses Microsoft Copilot on a day-to-day basis -- up from “a handful” about a hundred days ago -- with users averaging two-to-three prompts per day.
“I call that level one, or horizon one, which is adoption,” Fusillo said, referencing his personal, three-level framework for AI deployment within a company (levels two and three represent deeper levels of workflow automation). “Do we have large business gains from that level one? Not really. But have we changed the culture of the entire front office? Yes. To think AI-first.”
Fusillo projects measurable business results to follow as the Jets step to “level two” of their AI learning curve, which he labels the “workflow automation” stage. There, Fusillo said the Jets are already using AI to aid in areas like sponsor prospecting research, revenue reconciliation and, on the football side, structuring data from physician evaluations of players at the draft combine, among other use cases.
“We have over 20 deployments in level two,” Fusillo said, noting that those are expected to drive double-digit gains in metrics like top-line revenue and productivity. “What many companies don’t realize is if you don’t do level one, those [early adopters] are exactly the right people to identify what level two applications we should be going after.”
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Fusillo, who held leadership roles in data and analytics for Pepsico, General Motors, the NFL and American Express before joining the Jets, said his approach to soliciting buy-in from Jets front office members included a listening tour in the team’s cafeteria, speaking with employees about both his and their own AI habits.
He also credited an ongoing partnership with Next League for spearheading the AI education process. Next League Chief AI & Innovation Officer Shripal Shah led a team of six Next League staff -- with subject matter expertise ranging from business intelligence to sponsorship to social media marketing -- staging AI workshops with Jets employees over several months. The department-level workshops Shah led, Fusillo added, generated more than 60 ideas for AI deployments on the business side and “probably double that” on the football side. Shah used sponsorship prospecting as an example of how Next League looked to foster productive AI dialogue and, ultimately, adoption.
“By using that as the cornerstone example, and you learn how to do that in a fraction of that time, there’s a light bulb -- you can see it in people’s body language and faces,” Shah said. “Actually bringing [use-cases] into the workshops was really the accelerator. And the Jets, to their credit, embraced it.”
For more on the partnership between the Jets and Next League, see this week’s SBJ Live. Next League is the presenting partner of SBJ Tech Week and the SBA: Tech Next in Sports Tech: Rising Woman of the Year award to highlight the up-and-coming talent in the sports tech space.
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