AI Resilience Report forUmpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

If you've watched a baseball game this spring, you've already seen one of the biggest AI-in-officiating stories in real time. Major League Baseball is rolling out an artificial intelligence-augmented camera system this season that gives players a "second opinion" they can tap if they think an umpire missed a ball or strike call, using the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) that tracks pitches in real time. The system uses 12 AI-powered Hawk-Eye cameras in each stadium focused on the 17-inch strike zone, and was refined for seven seasons in the minor leagues before reaching MLB.

Importantly, humans aren't being replaced — players still get only a limited number of challenges per game, with the pitcher, catcher, or batter initiating reviews that take about 15 seconds ^[1], and the home-plate umpire still calls every pitch.

Other sports are following the same "AI as helper, not replacement" pattern. For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA is using AI-driven semi-automated offside technology that creates lifelike player avatars to help VAR officials make faster, clearer offside decisions ^[2]. Tennis has gone further: Wimbledon broke a 148-year tradition in 2025 by replacing its line judges with AI-powered electronic line calling ^[3].

At the youth and high school level, AI is mostly augmenting officials — the NFHS named RefReps its official officiating education technology partner in 2025, using interactive video-based modules and immersive POV scenarios trusted by more than 36,000 learners worldwide ^[4] to help new officials learn the rules.

Adoption is moving fastest where calls are objective (a ball crossing a line, a pitch crossing a zone) and slowest where judgment is involved (fouls, sportsmanship, intent). Cornell researchers note that introducing technology into baseball isn't like bringing a robot into a manufacturing line — you're bringing it into a game with culture, history, and millions of fans, which is why leagues are rolling out AI carefully through challenge systems rather than all at once. Public opinion is also mixed: an On Point/WBUR discussion explored whether robo-referees are making sports more fair or less fun ^[5], reflecting real fan ambivalence.

Economic pressure favors AI for top leagues, where one missed call can cost millions, but for youth and high school games, the cost of cameras and AI systems is far higher than paying human officials — so AI is being used to train and recruit officials rather than replace them. That matters because there's a serious shortage of youth referees nationwide. And in the pros, analysts point out that the ABS rollout actually showcases the high competence of MLB's human umpires, who agree with the AI on the vast majority of pitches ^[6].

The takeaway for young people curious about this career: the human skills that can't be automated — managing emotions on the field, communicating with coaches and players, teaching the rules, and earning trust — are exactly the parts of officiating that leagues, from Little League to MLB, still need humans to do. MLB itself frames ABS not as replacing umpires but as giving players a way to appeal that's better than "ineffectual arguing" ^[7], which is a pretty hopeful sign that referees and umpires aren't going anywhere soon.