Why investors should look beyond the fear surrounding AI

It is difficult to talk about artificial intelligence today without the conversation eventually turning to fear, ‘what ifs’ and negative implications of a robotic future. Deepfakes, job displacement, hacks, the list is seemingly endless, and as the technology develops, businesses and governments will clearly have to address them.

But as an entrepreneur building an AI platform, I sometimes think that this incessant focus on the negative has obscured our ability to truly embrace the other side of the story.

Even today in its infancy, AI presents an enormous opportunity to take knowledge, skills and expertise that have traditionally been expensive or difficult to access and make them available to the world at scale. This simply wasn’t possible even two years ago and I believe that even now, we are only standing at the cusp of what it can really achieve. 

For entrepreneurs, this opportunity reaches far beyond the most obvious applications of generative AI, and can open up markets which have historically been difficult to scale or constrained by physical presence. 

Take the multitude of industries dependent on one expert physically delivering their knowledge, for example. A great sports coach, teacher or even a business specialist only has so many hours in a day. Their expertise may be incredibly valuable, but their ability to distribute it is limited. But if AI could amplify that individual while maintaining a level of personalisation for the recipient, then surely that is a clear example of using this tech for the better.

The market we operate in – sports – is one of the sectors where I believe we are only beginning to understand the potential of this ever expanding opportunity to democratise access to talent. The global sports technology market is estimated to be worth $28.1bn in 2026, with forecasts it could reach almost $120bn by 2033. Within that, AI usage in this market alone is expected to grow from $12.7bn this year to almost $50bn over the same period. Those numbers are attracting investors for obvious reasons, but the real opportunity lies in what technology can actually unlock. This is a huge global consumer market with an enormous imbalance in terms of access to expertise – millions of people play cricket, football, tennis and other sports, but only a minute fraction will ever receive regular access to elite coaching.

Until recently, solving that problem meant training more coaches, building more facilities or asking budding players and fans to travel to where the expertise existed. But the advancements in AI technology introduce another option. For us at Kabuni Sports ,this means using technology to capture a young player’s individual sports technique via computer vision, biomechanics and AI, before analysing their performance in real time and providing voice, video and visual coaching through the AI likeness of their favourite sports star. Five years ago, this would have seemed a wild idea, but now, the possibilities using this concept are enormous. It is also where the debate around AI becomes particularly interesting, and where we must start to lead with opportunity over fear when discussing its usage.

We hear a huge amount about deepfakes and the misuse of people’s identities, but our success is proving what happens when an athlete – including world renowned cricketers Sourav Ganguly, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Shreyas Iyer we work with – actively partner with a technology company to authorise the usage of their voice and likeness. Suddenly, AI deepfake likeness usage has a completely different context. It is no longer viewed as a negative or manipulative impersonation, but a real chance to deliver the knowledge, coaching and presence of the world’s greatest to young players thousands of miles away.

There is a significant new commercial model here too on the side of the athlete. The value of a leading sports player has traditionally been monetised through competition, broadcasting, sponsorship, appearances, licensing and endorsements, but AI is now creating the potential for another category – where authorised digital likeness and expertise become scalable assets for the player in their own right.

Further, this does not have to stop with athletes. A recognised chef cannot personally teach a million people, a leading business expert cannot mentor thousands of entrepreneurs individually and an exceptional teacher cannot stand in every classroom. But with the right permissions, safeguards and technology, that expertise can potentially reach audiences at a scale previously impossible, creating value for the expert, the technology platform like ours and, importantly, the home cook, the budding entrepreneur, or the student who previously could not even dream of such access.

For me, I firmly believe that the commercial potential of AI remains untapped by potential investors who haven’t yet assessed the incredible market opportunity available.
The first generation of the current AI boom inevitably rewarded novelty – generating an image, or holding a conversation was enough, but that period is maturing and capital is also becoming more discerning. In our current Series A funding round, we have noticed that for early-adopter investors in AI there is now a clear need to distinguish between startups trying to capitalise temporarily on this excitement, and those capable of building lasting companies from it.

Investors want to understand what AI enables, whether the business has a credible route to market and whether a technology can scale internationally, and it’s these start-ups which offer proprietary technology, partnerships, specialist knowledge, geographical distribution and access to a large market who are leading the way with the most viable investment propositions. Ultimately, we are still at an early stage in understanding what AI will mean but entrepreneurs and investors should be careful not to allow the most frightening stories on AI to define our beliefs around the technology itself, and instead look optimistically on how much additional economic activity it can create. For investors willing to look beyond the noise, some of AI’s most valuable businesses are still waiting for those prepared to take the leap.