How AI is being used in sport
Sports organisations, sponsors, and events are increasingly developing AI strategies and incorporating AI-powered tools and products. Sports are more “data-driven” than ever before, and AI has everything to do with data. So, it makes sense that AI would make its way into the sports industry as well. For example, we saw AI playing an important role in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in various ways.
We can break down AI in sports into three main areas: 1) Enhancing athlete performance; 2) Assisting sports organisations across commercial and operational domains; and 3) Powering fan experiences. The power of AI in these areas comes from its ability to ingest and analyse huge quantities of data from sports, such as historical and live statistics, footage, photos, and videos. AI is driving a whole range of content and products across these three areas.
READY offers an online course that’s three hours long. It dives into what AI is, where it comes from, the different types of AI, and how it’s being used in sports across these three areas. It includes a range of case studies from sports like football, golf, tennis, and American football. Via the Discover AI initiative, sportanddev is offering FREE access to the course. Find out how you can enrol today here.
Can AI help to equalise sport?
Better performance or competition results generally correlates to greater access to resources and expertise. This causes inequalities between clubs, within leagues, and across geographic regions. As expected, professional leagues and clubs are investing heavily in the latest AI technologies. However, there's also great potential for AI to democratise and make data analysis and scientific tools accessible to organisations with fewer resources.
Take women’s sport, for example. In recent years, we’ve seen improvements: at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games alone, there was equal gender representation among athletes, record-breaking crowds at women’s rugby, and an announcement of $50 million investment into women’s sports science. But there’s still a long way to go, especially at the grassroots level and in regions where women’s sport is not prioritised.
AI opens up the opportunity for clubs and organisations with limited resources to do things like: 1) incorporate advanced data analysis, thereby freeing up the time of human analysts to focus on strategic decisions and direct player interactions; 2) incorporate personalised training programmes based on women’s physiology to predict and prevent injuries; and 3) offer fans games and products that enable personalised interactions with athletes and teams.
In the coming years, AI is set to play an even greater role in democratising and equalising grassroots sport and sport for development. Organisations will increasingly access tools that can perform and automate tasks at lightning speed. Meanwhile, the cost of these AI-powered technologies is decreasing as AI becomes more mainstream. For organisations limited in time and resources, this presents a huge opportunity.
Credits
This website section was developed in partnership with READY.
