UK AI Exposure · Associate professional occupations
Sports players
Professional sportsmen and women train and compete, either individually or as part of a team, in their chosen sport for financial gain.
- Employees (UK)
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- Median annual pay
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- Exposure score ?
- 0.0/10 Minimal 0.0/10 Minimal strict reading · with tools is 0.0/10 with-tools reading · strict is 0.0/10
- Wage exposure
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Higher exposure than 4% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where we start — flip the toggle to 'With tools' to see what AI plus the right context can compress.
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Assess performance following athletic competition, identifying strengths and weaknesses and making adjustments to improve future performance.
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Maintain equipment used in a particular sport.
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Attend scheduled practice or training sessions.
Most roles have at least three wedges where AI plus the right tools removes real time. For this role the labelling doesn't surface obvious ones, so we'd start with the highest-stakes tasks below and figure out the AI angle in conversation.
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Assess performance following athletic competition, identifying strengths and weaknesses and making adjustments to improve future performance.
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Maintain equipment used in a particular sport.
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Attend scheduled practice or training sessions.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Athletes and Sports Competitors" (27-2021.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 9 tasks · unaided
No tasks here are labelled as something an LLM can do unaided. Switch to 'With tools' above to see what changes when AI is paired with the right context.
Where humans still hold the line
9 of 9 tasks
Assess performance following athletic competition, identifying strengths and weaknesses and making adjustments to improve future performance.
Maintain equipment used in a particular sport.
Attend scheduled practice or training sessions.
Maintain optimum physical fitness levels by training regularly, following nutrition plans, or consulting with health professionals.
Participate in athletic events or competitive sports, according to established rules and regulations.
Exercise or practice under the direction of athletic trainers or professional coaches to develop skills, improve physical condition, or prepare for competitions.
Receive instructions from coaches or other sports staff prior to events and discuss performance afterwards.
Represent teams or professional sports clubs, performing such activities as meeting with members of the media, making speeches, or participating in charity events.
Lead teams by serving as captain.
Tasks via O*NET "Athletes and Sports Competitors" (27-2021.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 9 tasks · with tools
Even with tools, no tasks here are labelled as something AI can do today. The work is judgment, presence, or context-heavy enough that the academic labelling sees no leverage.
Where humans still hold the line
9 of 9 tasks
Assess performance following athletic competition, identifying strengths and weaknesses and making adjustments to improve future performance.
Maintain equipment used in a particular sport.
Attend scheduled practice or training sessions.
Maintain optimum physical fitness levels by training regularly, following nutrition plans, or consulting with health professionals.
Participate in athletic events or competitive sports, according to established rules and regulations.
Exercise or practice under the direction of athletic trainers or professional coaches to develop skills, improve physical condition, or prepare for competitions.
Receive instructions from coaches or other sports staff prior to events and discuss performance afterwards.
Represent teams or professional sports clubs, performing such activities as meeting with members of the media, making speeches, or participating in charity events.
Lead teams by serving as captain.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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