I'm one of the millions of people who are totally locked into watching World Cup 2026. I've been going to local watch parties, sporting my US team jersey and, yes, researching a lot about frontrunners, dark horses and why team Japan looks so dang good. While I often refer to my footy-fanatic friends if I'm curious about something, more and more people are turning to chatbots for answers. 

OpenAI and Google have both rolled out and highlighted numerous features that can help casual watchers, the most diehard fans and everyone in between make the most of this World Cup experience. 

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Experiencing the World Cup 2026 on ChatGPT

In the week before the tournament, there were 17 million World Cup-related ChatGPT prompts globally, according to OpenAI. Many of these prompts went beyond the standard "what's the score" queries and rather focused on gathering context on teams and players, reviewing team schedules, exploring storylines, making predictions and understanding what different match outcomes could mean for each team.

To meet that growing demand and interest, the company built a World Cup experience in ChatGPT designed for fans who want to follow the tournament in a more "personalized, interactive way." 

When you visit the experience at chatgpt.com/football, you'll be met with an interface that looks like your standard ChatGPT home screen but with structured widgets detailing all things World Cup. You'll see a section that breaks down the latest news and standings, upcoming matches, recent coverage of the games and even hot takes. 

The main page is dedicated to a broad overview of all teams, but you can also toggle through 48 localized country pages, which lets you get a quick overview of each team individually. That way, you can learn everything you need to know about Cape Verde's shocking draws against Spain and Uruguay. You can also ask what a particular result would mean for your team's path through the group stage, get a quick explainer on a player to watch before kickoff and generate fan images for your favorite team. 

Additional features are coming, according to OpenAI, including conversational brackets and ways for fans to compare picks with friends. There are also image generation prompts intended to help fans create and share their own World Cup visuals.

Google features for the World Cup

Google has also highlighted how several of its most popular tools (Search, Maps, Waze and the Gemini app) can help soccer fans keep up with World Cup matches from anywhere by making it easy to get live updates, learn more about what's happening and navigate match days efficiently.

Google said it has designed Google Search to make it simpler to access real-time soccer updates like live scores, lineups, standings, brackets and stories. You can also pin live match scores to your iOS or Android lock screen by following a match or team. 

AI Mode in Search can help you dive deeper by answering complex questions about rules, players and teams. You can also use AI Mode to generate interactive visuals about topics like formations (with generative UI available first for AI Mode Pro/Ultra, then expanding to everyone in Search this summer).

If you're in one of the cities hosting World Cup matches, Maps and Waze can provide up-to-date traffic and route details to help you get around, including road closures, pedestrian zones, transit options and updated Street View imagery of stadium areas. Waze will also show you live score updates at a glance when your car is stopped. 

You can also use Gemini to search across live match information and highlights as the action unfolds. The AI can generate visual elements -- like stats and videos -- for certain topics, transforming text-based outputs into visual outputs. 

How to watch the World Cup

You can watch every match in English on Fox and FS1, and matches in Spanish can be watched on Telemundo and Universo, which are available on Peacock. You can explore how to watch every match and find the cheapest streaming options on CNET.