Paris, April 8, 2025 – Artificial intelligence (AI) is establishing itself as a revolution in the world of sports. On April 3rd, Devoteam organised a roundtable bringing together athletes – Margaux Rifkiss, fencer, and Fabrice Amedeo, skipper in the Vendée Globe; and experts, Henry de Grissac, General Manager of Levallois Sporting Club, and Erwan Benech, former high-level athlete and Head of SportTech Offer at Devoteam, to explore the impact of AI on sports performance.
The central question was whether AI could become a new coach and a valuable assistant in optimising athletes’ performance while remaining complementary to humans.
The agenda of this meeting included the creation of the “2 min chrono” podcast for L’Équipe, the use of AI by the Levallois Metropolitans Basketball Club, and testimonials from athletes who shared their experience in the field of technological innovation. This morning provided an opportunity to reflect on the challenges of AI in athlete preparation and the management of sports performance at different levels, from high-level to the general public.
AI Serving Sports: A Revolutionary 100% GenAI Podcast
19 episodes, over 3K listens on platforms
AI is making a remarkable entry into the world of sports with the launch of the “2 min Chrono” podcast for L’Équipe. This innovative project aimed to make sports performances more accessible and understandable to the general public.
A 2-minute podcast was automatically generated each day, offering a summary of athlete performances, key highlights, and a state of the medal standings during the Olympics. This fully automated format made it possible to disseminate real-time information from data collected throughout the competitions. By making sports performance more tangible and understandable, the podcast helped the public grasp complex statistics, such as Nadal’s serve speed or the French team’s performances. This project tested the integration of AI in sports journalism while demonstrating the benefits of automation in reducing costs and enriching the spectator experience.
Levallois Metropolitans Basketball Club: AI Serving Performance
Beyond podcasts, AI is also finding its place in managing athlete performance, as evidenced by the partnership between Devoteam and the Levallois Metropolitans Basketball Club. This club uses AI to analyse match videos, evaluate players’ physical data, and even optimise talent recruitment. Thanks to data analysis tools, coaches can make more informed decisions, for example by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of opponents or predicting potential injuries.
AI is not seen as a replacement for coaches, but as an “assistant coach” that helps in decision-making by providing valuable information to improve player performance while keeping the human element at the heart of the process.
Roundtable: AI in the Daily Lives of Athletes
The roundtable, moderated by Léandre Caupenne, allowed high-level athletes, such as fencer Margaux Rifkiss and skipper Fabrice Amedeo, to explain how AI influences their practice and preparation. For them, AI is a valuable tool for performance management, particularly in injury prevention and the analysis of biomechanical data.
For Margaux Rifkiss, AI could change the way athletes understand their bodies and improve their preparation by allowing precise monitoring of physical parameters such as fatigue or sleep. However, she warns against the limitations of AI, stating that emotion and instinct remain essential in key moments of a competition.
Fabrice Amedeo, for his part, shared his experience with AI in the context of the Vendée Globe, where data management was a crucial asset in optimizing his boat’s settings and improving his performance.
Challenges and Perspectives: AI and Ethics in Sports
AI also raises ethical questions, particularly regarding the accessibility of technologies for amateur athletes or those from less publicised disciplines. The speakers emphasised the importance of ethically guiding this evolution to ensure equitable access to data analysis tools and avoid a standardisation of athletes. The idea is that AI should serve everyone, from major clubs to individual athletes, without widening inequalities.
Conclusion: AI, a Complementary Coach, Not a Replacement
AI is a powerful tool for optimising athlete performance, but it should not replace humans. It is an invisible coach, a valuable assistant that enriches decision-making, but it can never replace the intuition, passion, and human spirit essential to sports practice.
The podcast from L’Équipe magazine, the use of AI at the Levallois Metropolitans Basketball Club, and the athletes’ testimonials clearly illustrate this new era in which AI complements humans rather than replacing them. The future of sport lies in a subtle balance between technology and human talent, where AI and human intelligence will work hand in hand to redefine sports performance.
Click on this link to discover the roundtable.
To see a practical application of innovative technology in sports, read about Devoteam’s success with the Levallois Metropolitans Basketball Club.
About Devoteam
Devoteam is a premium consultancy firm driving digital business and transformation through innovative technology.
Tech native for over 30 years, we deliver lasting results in Cloud, Data, Cyber and AI for industries and public institutions across EMEA.
At Devoteam, tech entrepreneurship is at the core of our values, fostering our spirit as a learning company. Within this culture, we attract and train top professionals, creating high talent density across our 11,000 specialists. Strong partnerships have always been central to our DNA, which is why we collaborate closely with both well-known tech giants and emerging innovative startups. This ecosystem enables us to provide long-lasting solutions that help clients lead in their industries.
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