How Artificial Intelligence in Sports Impacts the Industry

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a complex term covering a number of smart technologies that share the ability of self-learning. AI-equipped solutions can process and analyze large amounts of data without the need to store it.

Artificial intelligence can perform multiple tasks, replace and speed up manual operations, assist with taking more appropriate decisions, as well as automating decision-making altogether in order to minimize human involvement. In other words, AI technologies simulate humans’ abilities to sense, think, and act thanks to the following features:

• Image and video analysis
• Facial recognition
• Speech and text analysis
• Machine and deep learning
• Natural language generation
• Smart search and recommendations, etc.

In case you want to learn more about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other related technologies, or to get some insights into making apps based on them, take a look at AI/ML consulting services provided by our company.

Fortunately, the world of sports is full of metrics that can be precisely measured and even predicted, so that’s a very suitable area for artificial intelligence to come in.

It’s no wonder that in recent years AI-based apps have become quite popular among sports companies, fans, and athletes. We are sure that with the positive impact they’ve made on the industry, applications with AI at their core will shortly become even more integrated into sports.

We made a list of areas where AI technologies help coaches and managers at sports companies benefit from new possibilities:

• Training and coaching. Processing data from players’ games and workouts, coaches and club managers can uncover the strengths and weaknesses of every player to improve their skills in a more individual way and build custom training programs.
• Health tracking and maintenance. Wearable electronics together with AI-based algorithms help monitor players’ activities during games and workouts to predict and avoid injuries and other health issues.
• Scouting and recruiting athletes. Using AI algorithms to analyze players, club managers can easily evaluate players’ potential and estimated market value. Applying prediction artificial intelligence algorithms in sports together with players’ current stats analysis, sports clubs, teams, and promotion companies will be able to make smarter decisions about the right talent acquisition.
• Advertising and broadcasting. By continuously studying the targeted audience of a game or a sports event, AI helps companies optimize live broadcasting by adjusting camera angles and subtitle language based on the viewer’s location and language preferences. Knowing the audience also helps with displaying advertisements in a more personal way.

These are examples of the AI-driven technologies which are actively used in sports today:

• Chatbots. Virtual assistants help athletes, sports teams, and stakeholders keep fans and amateurs in the know on a variety of topics, including game schedules, players’ stats, and event logistics.
• Wearables. Professional athletes and amateurs can use wearables to track health parameters in real time to avoid injuries and optimize training and performance. Wearable electronics equipped with AI technologies gather all necessary data timely and transmit it for further processing via dedicated applications.
• Computer vision. Technologies for object detection and facial recognition can help identify particular players’ movements, facial expressions, and other parameters during games and process this data. Using AI in sports analytics is especially important in such sports as racing, where you need machine vision to deal with high-speed movements.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is here to stay. CEOs of several technology giants, including Google and Baidu, have already declared a move from “mobile-first” to “AI-first” in their upcoming innovative developments.

With that in mind, we have summarized a few outstanding examples of AI-driven sports software solutions that are in development right now.

Alan Fern, Computer Science Professor from the Oregon State University, is currently working on processing videos from the National Football League (NFL) games with deep learning, training computers to understand the intricacies of football itself and the role of coaches there. As effective coaching requires years of experience and perfection, AI-based software could be very useful for it. Providing coaches and teams with improved accuracy in analyzing common mistakes, AI-driven technologies can notably improve players’ skills and the quality of games overall.

“For example, knowing how players move during a game could help coaches plan an athlete’s training so he reaches peak performance. It could also shed light on the best matchups between receivers and cornerbacks and measure the contribution of each player to every play.” — Alan Fern, Computer Science Professor, Oregon State University.

Another example of implementing AI technologies in sports is represented by a portable device called In/Out Tennis developed by Grégoire Gentil to communicate with both iOS and Android applications. This device acts as a digital referee in tennis, which is based on using computer vision and device hardware to detect the speed and placement of a tennis shot, even in situations when the ball gets out of bounds.

Although the device is currently in its prototype stage, it has already demonstrated the growing possibilities of combining AI software with portable hardware. Today, In/Out Tennis is offering multiple options for refereeing and coaching in tennis, thanks to instant data processing, video storage, and media streaming features.