Artificial intelligence has become more common over the past few years. Its advancements have led it to be implemented in different fields, such as sports. AI is used in sports to help with coaching, training, and fan engagement.
Coaches must be able to help all their athletes improve, but it becomes difficult when there is a high number of athletes and fast motion during the game.
According to Science Direct, AI technology can break down a game using an overview recording and is able to learn a team’s plays. AI is then able to help coaches point out flaws more effectively and inform the athletes on how to improve.
Training is also a key part of any sport. When AI understands how a person performs and what their weaknesses are, it can also help an athlete's training.
Both the team and the fans can predict the outcome of a game due to AI. This software compares the teams’ statistics and then outputs the odds of who wins, which is not always correct. These can be used by fans for sports betting or by teams to change their starting lineup for the game.
Fan engagement is needed for sports to stay relevant. As stated by Reso, the necessity for social media engagement is because Generation Z uses these platforms as their primary form of communication and news. AI tools can provide live updates about games or provide a brief summary to the fans about the team’s performance. It is also common for AI to be used to create a short video promoting the team or their upcoming events. By keeping fans interested on social media, they are more likely to stream a game or purchase a ticket as well.
Multiple sports arenas have started to incorporate live commentary for visually impaired fans powered by AI. This aims to increase the accessibility for fans who watch a game in person.
Artificial intelligence has become more relevant within sports. It has multiple uses from the teams to the fans and has room to grow in the future.