There’s a great deal of confusion and skepticism surrounding ‘artificial intelligence,’ what it really is, and the true value it can bring to an enterprise. AI in sports is no exception.
We at Zone7 see this first hand when meeting with potential partners. We provide clarity from the outset by explaining how and why our proprietary technology, aka #realAI, is different from existing platforms in the market.
Amid the technical jargon and complexity that are native to data science, we often see confusion arise when analysis is misinterpreted or misrepresented as prediction. These data visualization and manual interpretation techniques – supported by smart configurations, formulas and alerts – are not real AI.
The end-product is informative not prescriptive. It can overwhelm the user with more intelligence to parse through, instead of alleviating the burden of insight extraction. The goal should be for the team’s experts to spend time on interpretation and implementation of insights rather than data crunching. The unfortunate outcome of this mixup is more guesstimation and less real world impact, resulting in time loss and blind spots that give way to suboptimal decisions.
In a new reality where athletes are experiencing less rest time, more pandemic-induced uncertainty, and greater disruption to training, retroactive analysis and reactive insights only tell half a story. This is where Zone7’s proprietary algorithm takes things two steps further with forecasting and proactive recommendations.
Zone7 can stand alone or provide additive benefit to existing AMS as a true team player. It can ingest disparate datasets, arrange them in formation and use them collectively to quantify accurately the risk of an athlete breaking down. The technology is proven to identify risk patterns, preempt injury and optimize training with unrivaled accuracy. It’s a solution that has no direct comparison.
Think of traditional AMS as the sales analyst team at Amazon. It collects historic purchase data from the prior month, identifies which products/categories sold well, and provides reports that recommend where to increase retail prices, introduce sales promotions, or cull product lines.
Zone7, by contrast, is Amazon’s ‘transactional AI’. It analyzes customers’ online browsing behavior habits, creates tailored product recommendations, and makes semi-automatic price adjustments to capture consumer surplus in real-time. Furthermore, its actions are guided by a wealth of customer insights and reference data that builds over time.
We’ve tested Zone7’s solution over many man-years of live forecasting tests. The case studies speak for themselves. Our clients, including Getafe CF, Real Salt Lake, and Rangers FC, have reduced injuries and recouped player value thanks to Zone7’s real-time, forward-looking recommendations.
Throughout application, Zone7’s solution can generate comprehensive risk profiles for entire teams as well as customized recommendations based on individual athletes, coaching preferences, and an organization’s level of risk-aversion.
As more physios and sports scientists see Zone7 in action, our roster of partners continues to grow. They recognize the technology is not designed to create wholesale change. Rather, it is agile, adaptable to different work environments and can increase the value that users derive from other data collection tools and processes.
We’re now beyond just data analysis. It is a new era of ‘predictive guidance’. Early adopters can now justify their coaching and training decisions with greater certainty and free up more time to focus on crucial processes that require human attention, all while improving cost efficiency across the organization.
