From Hobby to Vital Community Hub: How AI Could Transform Sports Participation

By Anna Walker

18th June 2025

Could community sport emerge as a place of belonging, community and purpose in an era of AI-driven workplaces?

In this blog, I explore one of the most overlooked forces shaping the next generation of sport participation strategies: artificial intelligence (AI).

As sports leaders map out 4+ year participation strategies, most are grappling with funding, infrastructure, and workforce challenges. But there’s a bigger shift coming. One that demands not just innovation, but imagination.

This isn't just about advancements in sports science or performance analytics. AI is transforming society. If fewer people are working, or working fewer hours because AI is doing the heavy lifting, what will give people a sense of purpose, connection, and health?

👉 What if participation in sport becomes the most important thing we do as a society?

Not a hobby. Not a side activity. But a core pillar of community, identity, health, purpose, and belonging - especially in a world where traditional work no longer fills those needs.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s not a question of if. Only when.

And when this shift hits, the question becomes: Will your sport be ready?

Will it serve as a social sanctuary, inclusive and accessible to the masses? Designed to maximise social cohesion, mental wellbeing, and community identity?

Or will it continue to emphasise the few? The talented, the wealthy, the able-bodied. While the rest are left behind, excluded?

💡 The strategies we’re writing today will determine which sports are ready for the world of tomorrow. And that world may look nothing like the one we know today.

Already, nearly 1 in 2 Australian adults aren’t getting enough physical activity. Youth dropout from organised sport is rising. These trends won't reverse on their own.

✅ A future-proof participation strategy must ask:

• Are you treating inclusion as a bolt-on—limited to sidelined programs for target audiences—or are you designing environments and systems where anyone can belong?

• Are you focused only on the well-worn paths - highly trained coaches, expensive facilities, national teams - or are you building what participants are asking for: safety, play, fun, time with friends, and less pressure?

• Are you just tracking numbers? Or are you measuring experiences—satisfaction, retention, referrals, and whether people feel seen?

• Are you creating a marketing plan? Or are you creating environments people want to stay in for life?

Those bold enough to challenge traditional planning mindsets have a once-in-a-generation opportunity:To build systems that act as society’s new village square—a place to gather, grow, and thrive, even as AI reshapes everything else.

Because when the world changes, sport will either be a lifeline—or an echo of a world left behind.

This is the kind of future-focused thinking I bring to my work with clients.

🚀 Want to lead this change—not lag behind it?Join the waitlist for my upcoming Sports Strategy Lab—a future-ready learning experience for sport leaders who want to reimagine participation, inclusion, and impact.

👉Join the waitlist here

#FutureOfSport #ParticipationStrategy #InclusiveSport #SportLeadership #AIAndCommunity #SocialImpact #SportForAll