AI a Threat to Personal Training.
The world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved over the last five years into a remarkable tool that is seen and used in just about every area of business and personal life. Today, every industry faces the harsh reality, that this tool can lead to the extinction of the human workforce and threaten the future existence of business as we know it. In the fitness industry, the use of AI technology has become common and rather significant to fitness businesses of all sizes. However, AI's implications on the future of the fitness industry are both significantly positive and negative. As the world of AI evolves, we look towards the future and explore its significance in fitness. That being said there is still the looming question of whether your next fitness coach will be a robot. Today, we will dive into our perspective on the topic.
The Benefits of AI in Today's Fitness Industry
Over the last two years, the use of AI technology in the fitness industry has grown. The explosion in the use of AI technology has positioned many in the industry to reap the benefits of its use. The most resourceful use of AI technology in the fitness industry is membership sales where revenue potentials are generally the focus and lead generation is the most critical.
AI is best used in sales to analyze data. Implementing this technology can help fitness businesses pivot their marketing strategies quickly. By analyzing data on member behavior, member preferences, and engagement, companies can create personalized targeted campaigns used to solicit new memberships which increases the potential for membership revenue. Apart from the aspect of increasing membership revenue, the use of AI also influences the approach taken to enhance retention by providing evolving member data in shorter periods of time. This information is used to target niche markets and marketing efforts across markets where the benefits of membership revenue are the focus. Every business prefers New Business Revenue (NBR) as it signifies strong outreach and market penetration.
If you are running a fitness facility, the main profit marker is personal training. As AI technology improves and starts to revolutionize the industry, personal training departments and businesses will find themselves relying on data collected from existing members and consumers in order to learn consumer behaviors and adapt training programs to maximize profits. AI in this sense also helps fitness businesses convert personal training technology into major sources of revenue by creating new connections with existing and potential clients. It makes for easier personal training options. This is the wave of the future, as fitness businesses develop virtual trainers that will cost significantly less to maintain and operate than a physical trainer. The revenue potential has huge implications for future growth.
AI's Threat to Personal Trainers and Fitness Coaches
During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual training became the only way to coach and train clients. It was a new way to interact with clients and it challenged the way fitness gyms handled personal training. Many believed that once gyms and fitness centers returned to normal that many would return to training in person. We discovered quickly that this was simply not the case and discovered that it would become the new way of life for the masses of fitness enthusiasts and professionals. This shift in the way we delivered training services, in my opinion, was the birth of the fitness industry AI revolution.
As virtual fitness trends exploded, fitness business owners and industry leaders began exploring more options that would make fitness and personal training services both accessible and available digitally. It was around this time that we saw the emergence of AI-driven apps and platforms like Mirror by Lululemon and more functional products like Tonal.
With the existence and further development of these technologies, having a physical personal trainer looks like an old way of doing things. For the average training client, the reason why they hired a personal trainer in the first place was to deliver a personal experience that would get them to their goals and provide an outlet for a social connection. Instead, the experience was not always so personal as the clients find themselves dealing with moody trainers, personality mismatch, and trainers that no-show for appointments. Why would a client not opt in for a more tailored experience?
This is exactly what these apps and platforms provide. Self-programmed AI-generated virtual trainers providing training and feedback. The energy in each session is always high, and the personality issues are non-existent. Trainers are never late and client results are almost guaranteed, granted that the work is put in. So why not? This is exactly why trainers must stay relevant and favorable. Will there be an obsoletion of personal trainers within the next five years? The answer is probably not. There will always be a need for physical personal trainers to coach and correct clients' form and assist with program design. With that in mind, there is no debating the fact that a physical personal trainer can deliver more than a virtual training app. Although it may seem as though AI-driven apps and platforms are taking over the reality is that there is no comparable replacement for a human-to-human "personal" training session.
How to Stay Relevant and Ahead of the AI-Revolution
There is a really simple solution for personal trainers and coaches to stay relevant; personal and professional development being the first, and second maintaining continuing education for growth and relevancy. If personal trainers and coaches combine these two elements together, they will become ever more so relevant than technology. This somewhat resembles the battle of the worlds or a scene out of War of the Worlds where humans fight to maintain their existence over technology advancements they developed.
In conclusion, although it may seem as though that personal trainers and coaches are on the verge of extinction, the fact is that they are actually in a position to become the forerunners to the success of the technology developed by trainers and coaches themselves. There are many areas of opportunity if used correctly for both trainer and AI to exist. The question is are you ready to take advantage of your position within the AI revolution.
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