AI might take jobs. Sport might take centre stage

If AI takes more of our jobs, sport and recreation might become some of the most important civic infrastructure we've got. 

When people talk about AI and robots, the conversation usually goes straight to productivity.

Smarter scheduling. Cheaper admin. Better data. Fewer staff hours.

All useful.

But there’s a bigger opportunity AI could create for sport and recreation – and it has nothing to do with optimisation or automation.

It’s about what happens to people when work no longer plays the same role in their lives.

An ABC article I read this week (linked in comments) explores a future where humanoid robots and AI do more and more of the work. The focus is mostly economic - tax systems, productivity, universal basic income.

But towards the end it raises the question: what happens if, as robots take on more work, we drift towards mass early retirement or widespread involuntary underemployment – not because people choose to work less, but because they’re simply not needed as much?

🔹Who are you when your job title disappears?

🔹Where do you find structure if your week is no longer built around work?

🔹What holds communities together if the office is no longer the common meeting point?

Sport and recreation already help answer those questions. For so many people, clubs, teams and community programs already provide identity, routine and belonging.

If workplaces no longer anchor people’s identity and community in the same way, that role doesn’t disappear - it just shifts. And the role of sport and recreation building stronger & more connected communities becomes even more critical by providing: 

🔹A reinforced source of identity – not “I’m a manager at X” but “I’m a coach, runner, committee member, teammate.”

🔹Stronger routines – training nights, game days, walking groups, regular social play.

🔹Deeper community – clubs and groups that connect people across ages, cultures and backgrounds.

🔹More ways to contribute – volunteering, mentoring, governance roles, helping others to participate.

If AI takes more of our jobs, we’ll need more places that give people a reason to show up, belong and matter.

Sport and recreation is already doing that work.

The opportunity now is for sport and recreation to deliberately design for this role – to turn an AI shaped future into one of the greatest opportunities for human connection, rather than its replacement.