Technology, under debate at the Business Sport Forum: “With generative AI, the coach will know the mental state of a player”
Lthe last table the second edition of the Expansión & Marca Business Sport Forum It dealt with new technologies applied to sports. How Artificial Intelligence and the use of data improve performance and the relationship between the companies that leak the data and the players and coaches.
Ruben Granadoshead of data analytics at Telefónica Tech for sports; Alicia Richart, general director of Spain and Portugal at Afiniti; and Lorraine TorresPerformance Director of You First, were the speakers who accompanied the moderator, Emilio Contrerasdeputy director and digital manager of MARCA.
Torres, who has worked a lot in the United States, gave a ‘touch’ to Spanish sport. “Artificial Intelligence in the world of sports has been used for many years with advanced statistics. Especially in American sports, with which I am more familiar. When I return to Spain I would like to do it. In Spanish professional sport we don’t have access to as much data as it seems we have,” he explained.
You First’s Performance Director pointed out the surprising possibility that in the future, a coach knows the mood of a player before a game through facial recognition. “Generative AI is going to go a little more towards emotions. Through this type of analysis, just as you go through Iberia for facial recognition, it will happen in the stadium. Depending on how the player passes, the coach will already know your state”.
Another striking issue between AI and sport has to do with the doping. According to Alicia Richart, the technology can be used to compare performance data of players and competitions that can point to signs of the possibility of doping. “I am impressed by the use of control for doping in athletes. “It is very easy to collect data from those athletes and compare it with other competitions to see if there are any parameters that may indicate that there is doping,” he said.
Rubén Granados highlighted the importance of the technician who receives the data knowing how to interpret it and being someone familiar with the subject. “In the end you have to trust the knowledge of the expert in that domain, but it is increasingly seen that the people you work with know more about the area. In the end it is much easier to communicate with a person who knows it than with a person You just expect AI to help you, in general. It’s good because it helps you better direct your efforts and make sense of them. Mutual understanding helps a lot“he explained.
“Between the tools that we give them more techniques and what they know, Those things come out that help them plan training, nutrition, prepare a strategy to face a rival..”, added Telefónica Tech’s data analytics manager for sports.
Among the factors why AI has now emerged in the world of sports, Richart points to the democratization of the cloud and the ease of accessing data, something that did not happen years ago, when computers sometimes took days to offer the data that was needed.
Closing Alberto Tomé
Alberto Tomé, general director of sports of the Community of Madrid, was responsible for closing the event. Tomé thanked MARCA and Expansión for the invitation and pointed out the importance of sport in society. “Sport has no limits, it is integrative, it is open, it is creative, it is one of the best exercises of freedom”he began saying.
Tomé remembered “all the athletes who are going to represent Spain at the Paris Olympic Games, with special affection and a very strong hug to the people of Madrid”and defined the Community of Madrid as “a home of sport.”
