Top sports teams in the United States and Europe are turning to AI-powered apps for talent scouting, potentially allowing future stars to be recruited without leaving their homes.
Since January, clubs within Major League Soccer have been able to scout players worldwide through ai.io's innovative technology, aiScout. The new tech is available through the aiScout app, which allows prospective players to film themselves completing drills and assessments from their backyard.
After uploading the clips to the platform, AI analyzes the athletes' skills and rates their abilities. The tech also offers insights and feedback for the players to fine-tune their techniques. Additionally, amateur players have the opportunity to participate in virtual trials for top teams all through their mobile devices.
Changing Sports Through AI
Experts have praised the groundbreaking technology, calling it a "transformative tool" for athletic recruitment. In her experience, Brianna Van Zanten, a former college athlete and current travel soccer coach, told TechTimes that recruiting for soccer was a "prolonged and exhaustive" years-long process.
She explained that if she wanted to be recruited by a college coach, she needed to attend numerous soccer camps, visit various campuses, and create a "poor quality highlight reel" from past games and tournaments.
Now, with aiScout, that is all changed.
"In the world of athletic recruitment, AI can stand out as a transformative tool," Van Zanten said.
"Instead of just creating traditional highlight reels, AI enables players to provide coaches with in-depth technical and athletic insights. Tracking essential metrics such as speed, recovery time on defense, acceleration towards the attacking goal, and executing powerful shots, AI becomes a valuable source of detailed information."
Not only does technology like aiScout benefit prospective players, but Van Zanten said it can also be hugely helpful for coaches. She explained that by providing analysis and ratings for athletes, the AI can help identify players who already possess specific attributes coaches are looking for in recruits, such as agility and endurance.
"This allows coaches to focus solely on tactical improvement for these players, eliminating one aspect from the individual coaching agenda," Van Zanten said.
"This makes that player attractive over other candidates who might not be using AI data to their advantage. It represents a shift towards a more sophisticated and targeted coaching approach, aligning players more effectively with the team's current tactics and objectives."
A Path For Kids
Van Zanten, who played soccer while attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, said she believes new and young athletes are fortunate to have such technology at their fingertips.
"It provides a simplified and exciting path, making it easier for them to present themselves as irrefutable candidates and valuable supplements to college teams," she said.
Soccer players aren't the only athletes expected to benefit from these technological advancements.
Experts told TechTimes that, if proven successful, other sports, such as Basketball and Tennis, could also use AI programs like aiScout to recruit athletes professionally and for college teams.
Neal Feinberg, the president of the Florida Indoor Racquet Club, said often, unlike human coaches, AI can focus solely on data and analytics rather than superficial factors such as appearance, reputation, and background.
"UTR, also known as universal tennis rating, currently uses an algorithm which makes it the most accurate rating system in the world for competitive tennis players," Feinberg told TechTimes. "It analyzes not just win or loss, but margin of victory down to each point and very specific metrics."
However, he warned there are some concerns about the limitations of this hyperfocus on data. Feinberg explained AI often lacks access to "personal human factors" that are not always listed on paper, such as family troubles, eating disorders, and mental illness.
"A college recruiting coach, visiting the family and speaking over weeks and months with a player may start to learn of these underlying issues. AI will not," he said.
Nandita Gupta, an AI Accessibility and Product expert, also told TechTimes there are ethical concerns about using AI for recruiting purposes, particularly due to the bias within AI systems.
"AI does a great job of being able to summarize insights and present them in a concise manner, and that information can definitely be valuable within the recruiting and scouting process!" Gupta said. "AI can help reduce the cognitive load within these processes, but it's important to let AI do what it does best and let the humans do what they do best."
Ai.io did not respond to TechTime's request for comment. AiScout was first made available for players in the United Kingdom before expanding to MLS clubs in December 2023. The aiScout app is available for download on Google Play and the Apple Store.
About the author: Callie Patteson is a freelance journalist based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and New Hampshire. She is studying to receive her Erasmus Mundus master's in political communication and data journalism at the University of Amsterdam. Previously, she worked as a national politics reporter for the New York Post and an Associate Breaking News Editor for the Washington Examiner. Find her online at https://calliepatteson.squarespace.com/
