Partnership with Microsoft
Ocean AI
Team gROW are teaming up with Microsoft to build and test a world‑first AI co‑pilot that will sit at the heart of our Atlantic campaign: a digital teammate designed to help us row smarter, recover better, and share what we learn with as many people as possible.
Why an AI co-pilot?
As we prepare to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, we’re obsessed with one question: how do we democratise high performance, so the tools usually reserved for elite sport become usable, practical habits for families, teams and communities? Our race boat will be a floating laboratory for human potential, and AI gives us a way to capture, translate and share that learning in real time.
This is where Microsoft comes in. A brilliant team of Microsoft volunteers are donating their time to help us prototype an AI co‑pilot, and every hour they contribute is matched financially by Microsoft, with those funds going directly to our charity partners. Their expertise accelerates our innovation; their matched funding amplifies our impact.
What we're building with Microsoft
Working with the Microsoft team, we’re designing an AI co‑pilot with three core jobs:
Performance brain
The co‑pilot will help us bring together data from training, sleep, recovery and the boat to support smarter decisions, not just harder work. Think of it as a calm, objective brain that never gets tired, spotting patterns we might miss when we’re rowing two hours on, two hours off for (hopefully) 38 days.Recovery guardian
Recovery is where adaptation happens, yet it’s often the first thing to slip under pressure. Our AI co‑pilot will be designed to notice early signs of overload, poor sleep or rising stress, and to nudge us towards the simple actions that help us reset – whether that’s a micro‑recovery protocol on the oars, a breathing drill, or rethinking the on‑off rota.Storytelling engine
High performance loses its power if it stays inside the lab. We’re building the co‑pilot to help us turn complex science and messy real‑world data into stories, insights and simple experiments that anyone can try, at home or at work. If we can translate what’s working for us, in the middle of the Atlantic, into one small change that helps a family sleep better or a team handle stress more skilfully, we’re doing our job.
Why this partnership matters
This collaboration with Microsoft is about more than clever tech. It represents a new model of partnership, where:
Skills become impact
The Microsoft volunteers are not just writing code; they’re helping us design systems that could influence how people move, sleep and recover all over the world. Their donated hours are matched by Microsoft and converted into financial support for our charity partners, so every sprint meeting and line of code has a real‑world ripple effect.Innovation serves accessibility
At gROW, we’re determined that high‑performance tools don’t become yet another exclusive advantage for the already advantaged. By combining our ocean‑row “lab” with Microsoft’s AI expertise, we’re exploring how to make cutting‑edge insights simpler, more human, and more widely available.The Atlantic becomes a testbed for change
Our race is a metaphor for the journey we want to inspire in others: navigating uncertainty, managing stress, and still finding ways to move forwards. If an AI co‑pilot can help us do that in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean, maybe it can help you during a high‑stakes project, a life transition, or a season that feels like a storm.
Vicki Anstey
Vicki Anstey is a 2 x world record holder, adventurer, coach, TEDx speaker, and entrepreneur. After a decade running a successful fitness business, she turned to extreme endurance — rowing the mid-Pacific, cycling 3,000 miles across America, and completing ultra-distance foot races in the Arctic and Kenya. A UK ambassador for Inspiring Girls, Vicki is passionate about emotional endurance and empowering the next generation to thrive under pressure.