Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform many sectors across the economy. The sports realm isn\u2019t excluded from that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
New technologies are already changing the way sports are played, viewed and consumed. From enhancing athlete recovery, to live performance tracking and influencing rule changes, AI\u2019s plunge into sports is providing leagues more data and analysis than they\u2019ve ever had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s start with football. The NFL has arguably led the way in integrating AI into sports. The league has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2017, and at the beginning of 2024 created the Digital Athlete,<\/a> a tool using AI and machine learning to \u201cbuild a complete view of players’ experience, which enables NFL teams to understand precisely what individual players need to stay healthy, recover quickly, and perform at their best.\u201d The technology collects data from multiple sources, including game day data using AWS, and essentially takes video and data from training, practice and in-game action. It then uses AWS technology to \u201crun millions of simulations of NFL games and specific in-game scenarios\u201d to identify which players are at the highest risk of injury. Teams use that information to develop injury prevention, training and recovery regimens. The technology was used by all 32 teams this past NFL season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI and the NFL\u2019s relationship goes beyond the Digital Athlete initiative. In March, the league implemented a new kickoff rule<\/a> after predictive analysis identified plays and body positions that most likely lead to injuries. The process included capturing data through chips in players\u2019 shoulder pads, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer for the NFL, recently explained at The Washington Post Futurist Tech Summit<\/a>, which was sponsored by Mozilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n