In the last few years, we have seen an explosive growth in Generative AI tools that have appeared in many different fields and have been used for many different purposes (McKinsey Global Survey, 2024).
GenAI has now made its appearance in the world of sport and has revolutionised athletic performances. With its ability to analyse large datasets, it gives coaches and athletes a major competitive advantage by providing insights that were previously unattainable (Attri, 2024).
One of the key ways GenerativeAI improves performance is through personalised training programmes. Data from an athlete’s previous training sessions can be processed to discover areas of strength and weakness. It can then generate tailored training regimens, focusing on optimising an athlete’s physical condition, technique, and overall performance.
These personalised insights can also play a crucial role in injury prevention and recovery. Indeed, GenAI can detect signs of potential injuries before they become serious. It can then recommend adjustments to an athlete’s training routine to mitigate these risks, helping maintain peak performance levels while reducing the likelihood of injury (Moore, 2023).
Additionally, on another note, GenAI has shown to also increase athletes’ motivation by adding personalised milestones as well as gamification of training (Institute of electrical engineers, 2024). This can be combined as well with all the different aspects mentioned above. For example, creating a personalised and gamified recovery plan for an injured athlete.
However, after underlining how GenAI might improve athletes’ performances, its disadvantages should be highlighted. These can go from overreliance on technology, to misread injury-related data, ethical concerns about doping, and failing to consider athletes’ mental health (Yang et al., 2024).
I also personally think that these technological advantages can also widen the gap between large nations/clubs and smaller ones that have fewer resources and access to these technologies. It strengthens the direct correlation between one’s budget and its athletes’ performances, although some argue that this is already the case .
In conclusion, Generative AI has and will continue to influence the sport industry in many different ways. While it enables athletes to take their performance to the next level and be personally assisted, its negative aspects can impact athletes like it never has before.
References:
Attri. (2024, January). Beyond the Game: The Rise of Generative AI in Sports Industry. https://attri.ai/blog/beyond-the-game-the-rise-of-generative-ai-in-sports-industry
Biró, A. (2024). Gamification, GenAI and Reinforcement Learning as Motivational Assets in Performance Sports. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SACI60582.2024.10619802
McKinsey. (2024). The state of AI in 2024: Generative AI’s breakout year. QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-AIs-breakout-year
Moore, M. (2023). Introduction to sport social work. Practice.
Yang, P., Xu, R., & Le, Y. (2024). Factors influencing sports performance: A multi-dimensional analysis of coaching quality, athlete well-being, training intensity, and nutrition with self-efficacy mediation and cultural values moderation. Heliyon, 10(17). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36646
Thank you so much Leia for this insightful post. I personally highly resonate with it as I was raised in a sport environment, starting with tennis, through winter sports such as skiing, running track and finally professional basketball. It was so sad to see absolutely brilliant athletes forced to stop pursuing their life-long dreams and goals due to injuries. After reading your blog, I truly believe that in upcoming years AI and its cutting-edge technology can significantly change this sad reality by mitigating potential injuries before they even happen. That would be a huge step for the sports world, and I’m excited to see its further development and real-life application. However, as you mentioned, I know for a fact that such innovation will only be accessible to well-funded, big clubs and organization. It will indeed further deepen the divide between the small, local associations and already well-known names in the sports world. It is definitely an important issue to address, and companies that provide such solutions, as well as governments (potential funding), should take it under the consideration. I’m excited to see how this innovation develops and allows for even better performance, and what’s most important – increased safety for the athletes.