Key Takeaways
- AI and computer vision are revolutionizing athletic talent discovery and support systems.
- Traditional scouting methods are limited by geography, cost, and scout availability.
- New AI-powered apps enable athletes to showcase skills remotely and objectively.
- The technology is expanding globally to diverse sports, and has potential future applications in healthcare.
Deep Dive
- Traditional scouting methods are often limited by the number of available scouts and influenced by geographical and cost factors.
- Despite millions of players being involved globally, scouts can only assess a fraction of potential talent.
- Sports scientist Richard Felton-Thomas was inspired to develop new solutions after observing biases in traditional youth scouting.
- The reliance on social media for showcasing athlete performance is also problematic for comprehensive talent identification.
- AI Scout, an AI-based app from AI.io, allows athletes to record standardized drills using their smartphones.
- Computer vision AI analyzes performance data, including movement direction, jump height, speed, and coordination.
- AI.io partnered with Premier League clubs Burnley and Chelsea to develop the system for comparable, benchmarkable, and reliable data.
- Standardized drills for sprints, jumps, dribbling, passing, and shooting were created with scout input, analyzing thousands of videos.
- One talented individual, overlooked by traditional scouting systems, was discovered by AI, trialed for Chelsea FC, signed with another Premier League club, and represented their country.
- In India, the Ryance Foundation partnership allowed tens of thousands of children to trial remotely via a smartphone app and WhatsApp for scholarships.
- A significant success story involved an individual discovering talent through the app via a shared community phone, leading to a five-year scholarship with no prior organized sport experience.
- The technology was deployed for the Youth Olympics in Senegal, identifying 40 athletes for sports like wrestling, athletics, and football after recording thousands of children.
- In the US, the MLS Next program is utilizing the app to track the development of 45,000 players throughout their seasons.
- Future applications include at-home healthcare and medical fields, along with developing movement libraries for sports such as American football, basketball, baseball, and cricket.