A225: Applications of Digitalization, AI, and Big Data in Sports Science Research and Practice

The rapid advancement of digitization, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data has revolutionized various industries. In the field of sports and exercise science, these technologies provide comprehensive insights into athlete performance, injury prevention, and personalized training (Smith Lee, 2021). However, the benefits and applications of these technologies in sports and exercise science remain understudied. Therefore, this study provides a systematic literature review of the impact and applications of digitization, AI, and big data in sports and exercise science. The search strategy followed the PEO framework and the PRESS checklist. Five databases were used for searching: ACM Digital Library, IEEEXplore, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Search terms were ‘’Digitization’’ OR ‘’Artificial Intelligence’’ OR ‘’Big Data’’ AND ‘’Sport and exercise science’’. The selection criteria were: (1) The research was peer reviewed; (2) The research used at least one of the technologies, including digitization, AI, and big data; (3) The research addressed the field of sports and exercise science, such as sport training. (4) the research published in English or Chinese. All the results were checked for duplicates and screened via the Covidence platform. After removal and exclusion, 32 results remained. The research was conducted by mixed methods (N=6), quantitative methods (N=17), and qualitative methods (N=9). We found that (1) the impact primarily revealed significant improvements in performance metrics among athletes who utilized digitization and AI-based training programs in laboratory experimental environments. (2) he research on the application of digitization, AI, and big data related to the usage of enhancing training efficiency and injury prevention using wearable devices and AI algorithms. Conclusions/Discussion: Our findings contribute to the growing body of research indicating the benefits of digitization, AI, and big data in sports and exercise science. Future research could use qualitative research to identify the common themes and patterns of positive experiences with these technologies among professional athletes from a variety of sports disciplines.