PSG won the Champions League last year, and now they are coming to Reading to talk football technology. Paris Saint Germain and Ajax are among the clubs taking part in Friday's conference at Bearwood Park, and Stuart Fenton's view is that the invitation itself says plenty about how far Reading's year-old AI project has come.

Fenton, Reading's Head of AI and the first Head of AI in English football, summed up the shift in one line: "We're not starstruck by these teams". He added, "The exciting thing is they're coming to us - we're not going to them." Reading set up the pioneering department a year ago under new owner Rob Couhig, and Fenton's point is that the club now expects to be listened to as well as to listen.

Reading's AI project beyond recruitment

The summit is also being used to show how broad the club's AI work has become. Reading are using it predominantly for recruitment, but it has also been applied to tactics, retail and tending to the turf at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

Fenton said, "It's [about] creating the culture across the club where people are thinking differently - not how we can use it to replace humans, but how we can empower them and actually get them to do their job in a more effective way." That is the part of the story worth keeping in view: the pitch is not just about software, it is about how the club wants staff to work.

The visitors and what the summit is for

Crystal Palace and Como are also among the visitors, while the event is being used to launch a new programme between Reading and Setanta College on sports technology and artificial intelligence. Fenton said, "We're doing some really good things here but it's not in isolation. We want to hear what some of these top teams around the world are doing."

The lineup gives the summit some real weight, especially with PSG ranked first in the 2026 UEFA Champions League standings and having won their opening match 6-1. Reading are not pretending to match that level on the pitch. The point is simpler, and maybe more interesting: elite clubs are now travelling to Bearwood Park to compare notes with them.

When the conference opens on Friday, Reading will be hosting PSG, Ajax, Crystal Palace and Como as part of a discussion about where football technology goes next.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →