The Future of Sports AI Is Already Here: Reflections from the Inaugural AI Advantage Program
By: Travis Fleisher
A Room Full of Builders
Yesterday marked the inaugural series of the AI Advantage Program, a collaboration between Sports Innovation Lab and Microsoft where TwinBrain AI had the opportunity to present…and it exceeded every expectation.
This wasn’t your typical conference room full of passive listeners. It was filled with builders: sports executives who weren’t just curious about AI, they were already in motion. Some were running AI departments inside their organizations. Others were stepping up to become internal champions, eager to bring innovation to their teams and lead AI adoption from the inside.
The energy in the room was real. There was a sense of urgency, not fear-driven, but opportunity-driven. You could feel that people were there to do something, not just learn.
For someone like me, who’s spent the last year building tools, running experiments, and helping companies navigate the early innings of AI transformation, it was deeply affirming.
The Questions That Matter
The conversations that emerged throughout the session weren’t surface-level or theoretical. They were grounded in real operational challenges and strategic decisions that organizations are facing right now.
Some of the most recurring and insightful questions included:
“How do we clean and prep our messy, siloed data to actually be useful in AI models?”
“What are the legal implications of using AI to generate content—who owns what?”
“How do we handle hallucinations in outputs and ensure our teams don’t make decisions based on false confidence?”
“Can we use AI to automate asset valuation or performance-based sponsorship pricing?”
“How do we build trust internally, and externally with fans, when deploying AI initiatives?”
“Which tools or platforms are real contenders, and how do we avoid chasing hype?”
These are the right questions that go beyond the shiny demos and force us to think critically about infrastructure, ethics, and execution.
And the fact that these questions came from people across different functions—marketing, ops, innovation, partnerships—shows just how horizontal the AI opportunity (and responsibility) really is.
Curation as a Strategic Advantage
One of the themes that came up repeatedly in side conversations: there’s just too much noise in the AI space.
Every week, there’s a new “must-try” tool. Every day, another LinkedIn post with a list of “50 AI hacks.” For most busy executives, it’s overwhelming, and the fear of picking the wrong tool, or wasting time chasing something unscalable, is paralyzing.
That’s exactly why I built ToolCurator.ai. It’s not meant to be a comprehensive list of every AI tool in existence. It’s designed to be a filter, a place where sports executives, brand marketers, and creative teams can go to find trusted, usable, and actionable tools based on real needs.
The event validated this mission. Time and again, I heard variations of:
“We want to do more with AI. But we don’t have time to sort through the noise. We need trusted guidance.”
Curation is no longer a luxury, it’s a strategic advantage. And it’s something we’re deeply committed to at TwinBrain.
The Data Moat: Where the Real Value Lies
If there’s one macro takeaway I left with, it’s this: the tools are getting commoditized—but the data is not.
Anyone can now ask ChatGPT to write a press release or generate insights from a spreadsheet. But the real differentiator—the real moat—is in having access to high-quality, proprietary data and knowing how to package it into value.
This is where Sports Innovation Lab is leading the charge. They’re helping sports organizations think differently by providing proprietary fan data that gives sports organizations a deeper understanding of their audiences, from behavior and media exposure to sponsorship performance and engagement trends.
AI is democratizing the processing power, but not the inputs. As tools become more accessible, the orgs that will thrive are the ones that can:
Identify their most valuable data.
Structure and clean it.
Build internal workflows that turn that data into strategy, insight, and action.
The next frontier in AI isn’t tool mastery, it’s data stewardship.
A Glimpse Into the Future of Sports Media
One of the most exciting moments of the day came from a live demo by Staked AI.
In just a few clicks, they generated a fully voiced podcast episode recapping the WNBA Draft—complete with an AI-generated voice, script, and delivery. The whole thing was created in minutes.
Yes, the tech is still in early stages. No, it’s not perfect yet. But the implications? Massive.
Imagine a world where every athlete, every team, every league can have custom content generated on demand, across platforms, in their own voice…or the voice of their fans. No editors. No studios. Just high-quality, personalized media at scale.
The total addressable market (TAM) for this kind of technology in sports, media, and entertainment is hard to overstate…over 775 BILLION hours of podcasts were consumed last year alone. Once AI voices become indistinguishable from real ones, the floodgates will open.
And this demo was a powerful reminder: we’re closer than we think.
Community and Mission
Beyond the content and the tools, what stuck with me most was the people.
I met founders building AI-enabled scouting tools. I met heads of innovation at leagues rethinking content production workflows. I met marketers trying to tell better stories faster, and more inclusively.
Everyone had different roles, but a shared mindset: AI isn’t just a passing trend. It’s a transformational shift—and we want to be out front.
That’s why we started TwinBrain: to help people and companies ride this wave with intention. Not just reactively, but strategically. Yesterday affirmed that we’re on the right track—and that there’s a fast-growing community of like-minded builders ready to co-create the future.
Final Thoughts
The first AI Advantage session was more than a success, it was a signal.
A signal that sports is ready to lead, not lag, in this next era of innovation.
A signal that the market is hungry for clarity, strategy, and trust.
And a reminder that we are not alone in building what’s next.
Whether you’re just starting your AI journey or already deep in deployment, one thing’s for sure: this is just the beginning.
Travis