NWSL Coach Laura Harvey Says She Used ChatGPT to Change Seattle Reign's Tactics

Laura Harvey, head coach of the NWSL's Seattle Reign, partly credited ChatGPT with a tactical change that has helped the team improve significantly in 2025.

During an appearance on the Soccerish Podcast (h/t Colin Millar of The Athletic), Harvey admitted that ChatGPT first put the idea of utilizing a back five on her radar.

"One day in the offseason, I was writing things into ChatGPT like, 'What is Seattle Reign's identity?' And it would spurt it out. And I was like 'I don't know if that's true or not," Harvey said.

"And then I put in, 'What formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?' And it spurted out every team in the league and what formation you should play. And for two teams, it went, 'You should play a back five.' So I did. No joke, that's why I did it."

With the ultra-defensive formation now in their toolbox, the Reign are currently fourth in NWSL with 38 points after finishing 13th with 23 points all of last season.

Harvey, who served as head coach of the Arsenal women's football club from 2010 to 2012, has been an NWSL head coach since 2013 with the exception of a brief stint as the Team USA U-20 coach.

She is in the midst of her second stint with Seattle, coaching the Reign from 2013 to 2017 and again from 2021 to present.

Under Harvey's guidance, the Reign have won the NWSL Shield three times and The Women's Cup once, but they have yet to win an NWSL championship.

Last season marked the first time the Reign failed to make the playoffs since 2017, which suggested some potentially drastic changes were needed in order to get back on track.

Adding the back five look into the fold was among the alterations Harvey made, and she provided more insight into the role AI played in making that happen.

"I'd never really done a lot of research on it," Harvey said. "I'd never really, like, invested into how it could be played in the women's game. I'd only ever really seen it from afar, you know, watching men's games really.

"It was always sort of talked about as a way to see games out. You know, [you go ahead] and get into a back five and stop people from scoring, was sort of how, like, a back five had been talked about for me."

With one regular-season match left to play, Seattle has already clinched a spot in the playoffs.

The Reign will finish up their regular-season slate on Sunday against the third-place Orlando Pride in what could be a preview of a potential playoff matchup.