6 Impacts of AI in Sports Industry

If technology is the change maker, Artificial Intelligence is its flag-bearer. From businesses and jobs to education, AI has left its imprint everywhere. Sports, one of humanity’s oldest forms of organized play, won’t go untouched. On the global level, big data and analytics is being used in sports--bringing a new wave of change in the world of sports. The world of sports has abundant, quantifiable results, which makes it perfect for the application of artificial intelligence.

Below I’ve included five ways impacts of AI in sports industry:

#1 To Recruit the Best

Be it any game, a good athlete is the strength of the team. Performance data helps evaluate an athlete. With the introduction of artificial intelligence and big data in sports management, the process of recording and documenting the performance metrics of the athletes have become far easier and credible. With the help of this data, it has become easier for a team or board to choose potential players before actually investing in them. It also helps to gauge the market value of players optimally.

#2 Better Performance Analysis

Mere goals and runs cannot be helpful in making a performance analysis of a player. In order to have the best performance analysis in any sport, coaches must analyze multiple data points in relation to individual players and their performance. AI enables establishing correlations between the qualitative and quantitative variables of the player and formulate a tentative technique for future games.

#3 Improved Training

Based on the performance analysis of the player alongside qualitative and quantitative variables, analysis can help coaches and trainers devise better training programs for their players. Once a coach knows at what junctions are their players lag behind, it becomes easier for them to train. This will also help them in devising a better strategy for future games, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players.

#4 Maintaining Fitness of the Players

Our health industry transformed after introducing AI (see, for example, how easily and accurately AI can detect certain cancers). The predictive and diagnostic abilities of AI can be applied to ensure the physical health and fitness of the players.

Since the physical health is of utmost importance in the life of a sports player, the sports organizations invest heavily in tech tools to ensure the same. AI is becoming the most crucial tool in the medical kit of sports teams. Players are made to undergo regular physical tests using AI which help analyzing different health parameters. These tests can also help in detecting signs of fatigue or stress before the games. Many players are also using wearable technology to track their movements and keep a tap on their health overall. This helps in streaming and collating the health-related data and avoid major health related problems later.

#5 Revolutionizing Broadcasting

While revolutionizing sports for the players, AI is also going to revolutionize the sports experience for the audience. On the fields, AI systems can be used to pick the right display angle of the camera to the audience. AI can also provide subtitles for the events in different languages in accord to the viewer’s location and language, without any manual assistance. The technology could also help broadcasters monetize better by showing the right advertisements or opportunities to the kind of crowd present there.

#6 Better Sports Writing

AI has already been used in the field of content creation especially for sports casting. In the future, there will likely be more tools to automate content generation around games--which we in the software development industry look forward to! The more updated, real-time content your site includes, the easier for sports companies to add new business models.

All and all, AI in sports industry continues to expand to every industry because its’ a valuable tool. Be it about predicting the health of a player or the turn a particular game might take, AI will be able to help through it all.

By Sachin Dev Duggal, Founder & CEO, Engineer.ai