I spent the last 10 years working at a machine learning and AI company in the Bay Area. I got to thinking, how will AI affect running?
Here are a few dimensions of running where AI will have impact:
- Business of running
- AI can help bolster productivity of running businesses, especially small businesses like running stores and brands. You can use AI to generate draft blog posts, social media captions, art and more. Leveraging the AI tools to make business more productive is a no brainer.
- Run Coaching
- I asked ChatGPT to create a running plan to get back into running gradually and to help increase my speed. It came up with a pretty decent plan and had pretty good detail to it. What will happen to coaching services?
- More than the plan itself, run coaching is about the connection between the coach and athlete. Yes, the training plans still need to be tweaked and created but the real value of a coach is the human connection. AI just doesn’t provide the warm and fuzzy feeling that a person cares about.
- Competition of running
- Humans will always want to put their physical fitness to the test. No robot nor AI bot will be able to replace that. AI may have predictions on who will win a race but humans will always be curious about what they can achieve. Proving whether AI will be right or wrong may become a sport though!
What do you think? How else will AI impact the running industry?