Are Coaches Open to AI Tools? An Initial Investigation in Baseball and Softball
MSU Affiliation
James Worth Bagley College of Engineering; Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Creation Date
2025-11-14
Abstract
Success in many sports requires the ability to accurately execute the intended actions and to strategically select the right actions to attempt. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods have recently been developed that can help with these tasks by measuring athletes’ accuracy and suggesting effective actions to try. AI tools developed from these methods can potentially transform player evaluation and coaching. However, major open questions remain, such as: How do coaches feel about these hypothetical tools? What functionality would be required to be useful for coaches and players? This paper presents an initial study to gauge the openness of baseball and softball coaches to using AI tools to help evaluate and coach pitchers. While more work remains, findings suggest that coaches are generally open to adopting AI tools and can easily envision their utility. Potential challenges and suggestions were identified, all of which will guide the future development of AI tools.
Publication Date
11-16-2025
Publication Title
SportsHCI '25: Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on Human-Computer Interaction and Sports
Publisher
ACM
First Page
1
Last Page
7
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Nieves-Rivera, D. I., Archibald, C., & Bethel, C. L. (2025). Are Coaches Open to AI Tools? An Initial Investigation in Baseball and Softball. Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on Human-Computer Interaction and Sports, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3749385.3749416
