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042 - The First Head of AI in English Football | Reading FC
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Stuart Fenton holds arguably the most unique job in UK data and AI — Head of AI at Reading FC, and the first person to hold that title in English football.
His path here wasn't exactly conventional. Telecoms. Applied research at the University of Surrey's 5G Innovation Centre. Government AI advisory. And then — a completely faceless tweet to the club's owner.
In this episode, we get into:
• Why most AI vendors in sport are selling buzzwords, not results
• How to build genuine AI capability on a League One/Two budget
• The blueprint Stuart is creating that smaller clubs could actually replicate
• Computer vision, recruitment AI, and injury prevention — what's real, what's hype
• Why commercial acumen is harder to teach than any technical skill
• How to build trust and culture in an environment that's wary of change
This isn't a conversation about futurism. It's about doing things properly — with limited resources, in a traditional industry — and making it actually work.
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Transcript
Strategic AI Deployment in Sports
00:00:00
Speaker
AI is not a light switch. People may think it is, but it isn't. It takes time, it takes effort, and you need to have a real strategy about how you want to deploy that within an organization. We've looked at player recruitment as kind of like the phase one.
00:00:10
Speaker
Sports science, how do we use data to keep players fit? How do we look at preventative injuries? And how do we be smart around kind of building biomechanical profiles with players so we can be much more data-driven than what we're doing? How can we potentially use Agenda KI to look at data to spot early signs of injuries because that's a huge football issue. You spend a lot of money on players and on wages and fees and this kind of thing but if they get injured they're sat on the bench or they're sat on the, you know, watching the game, causes problems. The first kind stage is, you know, what provides us quick ROI and actually then what's the longer play.
00:00:42
Speaker
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00:01:05
Speaker
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00:01:17
Speaker
That's O-M-N-I dot co. Now, back
Introducing Stuart Fenton and His Vision
00:01:21
Speaker
to the show. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Stacked Data podcast. Today we're joined by someone who's possibly one of has one of the most unique roles in UK data, Stuart Fenton. He's the first ever head of AI in English football and currently leading AI strategy at Reading FC.
00:01:42
Speaker
Stuart's had a wild journey to where he's got to today, starting off in global telecoms, he spent years in cutting edge applied research at leading universities, and has even advised the UK government um as an AI special specialist before landing his job um at Reading FC by actually tweeting the the owner from ah from a faceless account. So um in in today's episode, we're we're going to dig into, I suppose,
00:02:09
Speaker
how how AI is actually being implemented in elite sport, how to build data strategies with a limited budget, how to cut through hype and i suppose choose the right vendors and partners for yourself um and how, Stuart is building the blueprint for League One, League Two clubs to eventually replicate data-driven AI strategies in
AI's Role in Sports and Commerce
00:02:32
Speaker
in football. So um yes, the conversation is about AI, but also more importantly, we're going to touch across commercial action and partnerships, particularly around doing things um in that balance of of pace and and quality.
00:02:49
Speaker
Stuart, welcome to the show. It's great great to have you on. Thank for having me and thank you for the kind intro there. It was ah yeah definitely yeah a wild journey I've kind of gone through it to get into football. but yeah Loving life here and really excited about the future of what we're doing here at Reading Football Club.
00:03:04
Speaker
Excellent. look i mean I was to give a bit of an intro and a summary, Stuart, but like you've had quite an um unconventional route into your role now. I think that's pretty common across the data space. um But yeah for the audience that doesn't know you, could you you walk us through your ah your journey to to date and I suppose have been the common threads and and ties that that bring it all together?
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, of course. so I mean, as you mentioned, I started my career in global telecoms. and So I did a number of years there working at like Vodafone Global, VTE, did my time in kind of commercial selling and account management, always looking at kind of innovativeative innovation, how, you know, organizations could innovate, how they could use new technology. And then kind of took a bit of a sideways step. And I have a master's in international economics.
00:03:52
Speaker
um wanted use that little bit more, so I went into the public sector and started doing kind digital growth strategies, how I can actually look at economic and regional growth. That got me working with a number of different partners at Hampshire Council. I then went to go and work for the University of Surrey, and that's really where I kind of got involved in the AI bit. You know, I was kind of surrounded by some, know, incredibly talented academics. I always had a kind of rule that wanted be the dumbest guy in the room. which we kind of worked out nicely because I just absorbed all this information from academics who were really passionate about it. And that was kind around the 2016, 17 times, it was still quite early.
00:04:30
Speaker
and you know we hadn't had the kind of Chad GBT AI explosion that we've seen in the last couple of years. um So i yeah I absorbed as much knowledge as possible. um i left the university, created my own consultancy business. I was consulting people on 5G AI IoT. t um It was then I kind of got appointed by the UK
Stuart Fenton's Journey to Reading FC
00:04:49
Speaker
government as their AI specialist. So I was working at the Department for International Trade, working with partners all around the world who were doing this amazing AI stuff.
00:04:57
Speaker
um yeah And then I became a managing director of a technology business, worked with sports teams, innovative organizations, and then took a little bit of time out after that. So I i worked there for about two and a bit years, nearly three years. I went on sabbatical as I kind of wanted to realign. I was managing director, but i kind of missed doing that.
00:05:18
Speaker
the innovative stuff um actually making the real innovation happen as a kind of managing the people that were doing it and then this opportunity came up with reading so i'm a reading fc fan have been for 30 years and then we had the takeover by rob kuig who used to own looking wanderers when he came when he kind of came out to the media and to the fans he said look i'm starting up you know i'm taking the c club over i'm creating a business council a found council and an ai council um Not sure what i need or what I'm going to do with that, but i know I need it and I know that's the way the game's going. So as you say, I reached out on a faceless ex Twitter account, whatever you want to call it, saying, look, Rob, I've got a few ideas. I've been a Reading fan for 30 years. I'm really keen to get involved, use my expertise and and everything I've learned over the last couple of years to put together your AI strategy. And we had a few video calls and back and forth. And then he invited me down to the training ground and made me the first head of AI and in English football.
00:06:12
Speaker
which is a huge honour, huge opportunity and something I've been loving for the last few months and especially kind of now we're getting real traction some of the projects that we're doing. Amazing. ah I think it's great, um you know,
00:06:26
Speaker
we we yeah we're We're recruiters at Cognify, so spending the time trying to find people jobs and I think yeah showing that innovation and and and trying to find different routes to speak to the right people shows that it clearly works at whatever level you're Absolutely.
00:06:44
Speaker
Excited to dive into some of the um some of the projects that you' you've already kicked off and are already showing impact, Stuart. Obviously, i suppose AI, there's a lot of hype in the industry in general, but obviously, particularly in sport right now. What do you think most people misunderstand about applying AI in in a football context?
Challenges in Implementing AI in Football
00:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i think the biggest challenge I see is people try and shoehorn technology into sport. You know, they think it works in the oil and gas industry, it works in the finance industry, so it's got to work in the football industry or the sport industry, and it doesn't.
00:07:19
Speaker
and You know, there has to be a real alignment with partners who understand sport and football. and you know take our you know our partnership with SCORE. It works really nicely because they have a football consultant, so Brian McDermott, the ex-Ready manager, and he understands football.
00:07:34
Speaker
He's able to translate the technology and the application into football terms. um you know I get pitched a lot of things every single day and it again it goes down to, yeah we we work in industry work in other industries, we're sure this is going to work for you and it doesn't. know Ultimately you have to have a solution that's scalable and you know something that can actually fit into the football environment and actually into environment where there's not a lot of data at people. um You know, at League One level, even League Two, you know, you don't have huge teams behind the scenes.
00:08:02
Speaker
You have a lot of football expertise, but you don't really have a lot of data expertise or a lot of technical people. So it's like you need to make sure that what you're selling is suitable for the audience, suitable for football, but actually translatable into football as well, because there's no point, you know,
00:08:17
Speaker
here's our solution, but you're going to need free data scientists to underwork out what this can do when you know you don't have the budgets to have that amount data scientists. The money goes on the pitch. So it's yeah it's definitely an interesting one. The hype's well with AI, like we've seen it throughout. um There's tons of hype, there's tons of stuff out there that says they can do things and it doesn't actually do it, and or it's just data visualization. And you know that's um one thing that we see is you know what's the actual true AI element to it? What can it actually do rather than know visualize something? So i mean, that's the challenges we have, but you know that's part of the role that I enjoy as well, like actually digging under the surface of what the products are, what the partners are doing, and actually seeing where the true AI application is.
00:08:58
Speaker
That's really interesting. How do you actually dig under the surface? um like I think yeah that's it's it's really hard to sometimes and really easy to get caught up in the the buzzwords and I suppose the the shiny pitch. What's your process to actually understanding is this product or partner going to really add value to me?
00:09:17
Speaker
For me, it's working with the technical guys. So, you know, we get the sales and the marketing and it all looks really flashy and everything looks great and it looks great on the presentation and the PowerPoint and you're like, yeah, this does look amazing. But for me, I spend a lot of time with technical people. So I kind of have the technical expertise I've built out through my time in telecoms and in academia where um I have that unique blend of kind of commercial and technical. So once I start speaking to the technical guys and start asking a few probing questions about their underlying technologies, where we can do it, how we can apply it into the club, that's when we get a real feel for what they can do and actually what their capabilities are. um So yeah, a lot of my role is working with the you know the commercial and the marketing people, equally probing the technical guys to say, actually, what is this doing? How is it doing it?
00:10:01
Speaker
And actually show me how this works. and you know A lot of the technical guys are quite excited by that. They don't usually get an opportunity to do it. you know It usually goes to the salespeople, the pre-sales team to do the selling. Whereas actually I like to fundamentally go into an organization, see what they're doing, seeing how they're doing it, and you know lift the bonnet a little bit and see how the everything works.
00:10:22
Speaker
Amazing. I suppose it'd be good to set the scene a little as to, I know you're you you you're relatively still new to to to Reading and it's really assessing where where you're at as a data maturity.
00:10:34
Speaker
Where are you at when wait when you've joined? It'd be good to get an understanding. One of the challenges we had with the takeover is there was um you know historically has had some challenges in Reading Football Club. So when I picked up the team and came to the team, you know the data maturity wasn't where you would want it
Data Strategy at Reading FC
00:10:51
Speaker
to be. But i think that's synonymous with most sports teams. um They're good sports or football teams, but actually from a data perspective, you know it's they're not data specialists. So you've probably got pockets of information here, there and everywhere. So part of it has been, let's set, you know, but part of my role has been, right, let's set the data strategy, actually, what data do we need?
00:11:08
Speaker
Where do we collect it from? How do we store it? How do we keep it safe and guarded? You know, one of the challenges we have is around, say, the Academy. We have a category one Academy, but that's children's data from twenty ones down to wanes So you need to make sure that there's rigorous security protocols but around data.
00:11:25
Speaker
and We always call the academy the ring-fenced opportunity. It's something that we want to do more with, but we're very conscious from with a safeguarding perspective what we can do and who we can work with. um So the the initial bit been kind of looking at the first team side, kind of the the recruitment, the physical sports science bit, um and then kind of now moving on to the business operations side of things. you know How can we do be smart over our stadium? How can we start generating more revenue through subscriptions, through marketing, through different areas and making sure that we have one coherent data strategy that sits across the club and rather than kind of you know silos that sit in different areas. and Because you know you'll know from your experience kind of working with partners, and historically it's siloed in different areas. People don't I either know where it is or where it is or how to use it. So um a big part of my job has been kind of getting that data level right because there's no point in me doing the fun AI side of things if the data and the foundations that we're sitting on aren't correct and aren't where they should be.
00:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, we see all the time. And I suppose it's what the the modern data stack is ultimately coming to try and address, right? The single source of truth, you know, the the consolidation of of having everything in one place, which yeah um makes it easier for the discoverability and ah ultimately the usage of the products that you're obviously going to build. Absolutely. And, you know, the stuff we we see it all the time that, you know, people try and jump to the AI strategy or the dashboards or everything, and they they forget the fundamental bits of the bot and the need to done first.
00:12:53
Speaker
you know I always kind of use the comparison, it's like building something quicksand. you know you know If you you just chuck that an AI level, an AI strategy on top of things, saying, right, this is what we're going to do. And then when it actually comes to the implementation of it, you haven't got the foundations in place to be able to do it. You waste a lot of time, you waste a lot of money. And you know candidly in football, we can't do that. you know We need to make sure that we are as as effective as possible, we're as cost effective as possible. um and put the foundations in place now so that we can benefit in the future seasons.
00:13:22
Speaker
And that's been you know a cultural change. you know We've had to speak you know to from the team from the top to the bottom, kind of this is what we want to do from a data strategy perspective, this is where we want to get to from an AI perspective. And once we've kind of had that cultural change internally, we can then start building out with the partners what we're trying to do and align everybody as well. i mean You know I've worked in organizations in the past and consulted for people who have individual strategies that don't align to a greater strategy and, it you know, fundamentally, it always falls over. and So for us at the football team inside Bright, how do we create a coherent data strategy that aligns with what we want to do as a club, that makes sure that we benefit from the technologies that we're bringing in, and that allows us then to choose the partners that we want to work with. because what we don't want to do is have isolated siloed partners that deal with one part of the organization, but then we have to go out and fund another part, um you know, because there wasn't a strategy in place. So it's been very much strategy building, identifying what we need, why we need it, um how critical it is and, you know, building that into a phased journey because
00:14:23
Speaker
the A lot of people think that AI is like flicking the light switch. As soon as we say we've got AI, everything's going to light up, we're going smart, we're going everything. And it really isn't. it's It's a really journey that you have to go on. It has different stages, has different phases. um And it's identifying, you know, what's the ah ROI that we do you know that we do it for? And, you know, why are we doing it? We won't ever use technology for technology's sake at Reading. um it It has to give us competitive advantage or operational efficiencies for us to be able to bring it in and justify any investment that we make.
00:14:54
Speaker
i I think it's something that obviously is clearly super critical for you guys at Reading. I think we can get on to some speaking about obviously how important it is with tight budgets to be and yeah so focused in on on ah ROI. But I think it's something that you can apply to to any data role, whether you're a junior or a leader in any company, as having that understanding of the full yeah the full full life cycle, where's this data coming from, what's it being used for, why are we using using it, what are the different edge cases and I think having that open mindset can really help people.
00:15:26
Speaker
um i think particularly in early careers, people tend to be quite fixated on just their area that they're focusing in on and and I think having that breadth and understanding across the the spectrum can really help accelerate careers and yourself as a leader in in AI, you're you're talking about you know data engineering, data modeling, and the foundations which are a key. So it's showing that I think that breadth is super important. And you know for me, I'm kind of in a privileged position where I get to oversee everything at the club. you know From a junior level, people will be focused on their own area because that's what they're responsible for. But it's it's how do you play in that bigger picture. You know, I look at the wider overall strategy, but, you know, I have people that come to me saying, well, this is what we need from a data perspective. And it's actually creating these kind of data champions within the team that, you know, feel comfortable that they can come to you and say, well, this is what we need. This is how we want to do things.
00:16:16
Speaker
um And then just how does that align to what the overall strategy is? Because especially in sports, there's so many different data packages out there. There's so many different things that you can actually do. and But you know they they're expensive. they're not you know It's not cheap to get data. you know People will spend time tagging, manually tagging, or automatically tagging things. and It's how do we do it effectively. And as you say, like League One budgets, you know we don't get the TV money that you get in the Premier League. you know The those values of sponsorship are lower because of the eyeballs that see it. So it's like, how do you get the most return for your money? But equally, how do you identify the partners that can deliver what you need to on the budget that you have?
00:16:52
Speaker
I think you brought up in a really interesting point there, obviously, I suppose, about yeah so how many areas I think that you could actually go down. And there's so many different applications for AI, but I suppose data in general, particularly obviously in your your area, but again, across any industry.
00:17:09
Speaker
What's your philosophy to deciding what problems that AI should solve inside a football club? And I suppose it'd be also good to maybe a bit of a framework for people that maybe aren't working in a football club.
Empowering People with AI
00:17:22
Speaker
Sure. I mean, i have a personal philosophy. I'll never use AI to replace people.
00:17:27
Speaker
you I would use AI to empower people, to give them more time back. I'm not interested in bringing AI in to replace anyone. It's a philosophy I personally buy into. and you know i want to empower people to be better at their jobs, to to innovate, do things differently, but I don't want to bring it in to replace anybody. know i'm not you know We're a small team behind the scenes, but it's never something that philosophy ever bought into.
00:17:52
Speaker
um you know for me I have an overall strategy that I want how I want to deliver AI at Reading Football Club. ah Every organization is different. um You know, being candid and one glove, one size doesn't fit all. You know, I look at the football club as a whole. Where can I a make immediate impact? Because, you know, from an ownership perspective, they want to see results, they want to see returns. So player recruitment is a and an area that we can tackle. There's lots of data already out there. It's something that we can then build models around, build dashboards around. and we can get access to good quality data and um start building models because if you look from a return perspective, if you bring a player in on a lower value because you've seen something in the data, you know it's the money ball analogy. and
00:18:36
Speaker
We call it Reading Ball internally, but and we we look at the whole club and that's why we call it Reading Ball. But it's finding undervalued assets that we can then come in, develop and then sell for profit. and you know It's a way of generating revenue, it's a way of being innovative in the transfer market, but it's something that a lot of teams are doing.
00:18:54
Speaker
So it's like, okay, well, how do you try and differentiate from them? Because everybody's looking at the same data, but how you interpret the data is probably the the key. and it's always been my kind of you know key thing to say you know it's it's people who understand data you know you can give any football club or any sports team in the world tons of data but if they don't know how to interpret and how to use it then that that's the problem so you know having people within the team that understand that you know i have ah a data specialist that works for me he interprets a lot of the data for me he's allowed me to um you know free up my time to go and do some other stuff while he's working on the recruitment strategy for me um but that kind of provided an ah roi that you know um that we that we need to look at and then it was about phasing the journey you know it was again ai is not a light switch um you know people may think it is but it isn't it takes time it takes effort and you need to have a real strategy about how you want to deploy that within an organization we've looked at player recruitment as kind of like the phase one
00:19:53
Speaker
uh, sports science. How do we, how do we use data to keep players fit? How do we look at preventative injuries? Um, how do we be smart around kind of building biomechanical profiles of players so we can be much more data driven and what we're doing?
00:20:05
Speaker
How can we potentially use Agenda KI to look at data to to spot early signs of, of, um, injuries? Because that's a huge footballing issue. You know, you you spend a lot of money on players and on wages, on fees and this kind of thing, but if they get injured, they're sat on the bench or they're sat on the, you know watching the game, it causes problems. So it's how can we do that? So that was the first kind of stages, you know, what provides us quick ah ROI and actually then what's the longer play?
00:20:32
Speaker
So things like the stadium, you know, our connectivity to the stadium we're looking at in the moment. What does that unlock if we provide connectivity there? What kind AI solutions can we bring in? and How can we start being different to deliver a new fan experience? and How can we provide better connectivity for fans or people that come to the to the venue? um there's There's lots of different things that we we want to do. And I think the big challenge, and I see this all the time, is AI can fix or help many things, um but you can't do them all at the same time.
00:21:03
Speaker
So you have to really you know understand from an organizational level, what are you trying to achieve? you know What do you want out of AI? What do you want out of data? like What can you do today? What can't you do today? What would an AI solution essentially allow you to do in 12, 24 months time? And if you did it, what are the ah ROI and the productivity benefits from it?
00:21:22
Speaker
um As I said, I'm not a buyer into the it replaces people. Look, we've seen it in other industries that can do it. Not the philosophy that I buy into at all. I've always seen being kind of a tech for good, use AI, and responsible kind of person. and So for me, it's it's identifying the overall strategy, how it aligns and then, you know,
00:21:41
Speaker
creating the cultural change internally to make sure people buy into it because there's a huge fear around ai and you know if people don't understand that you fear that it's going to take your job or um you're somewhat undermined it's about educating people on the on the journey making them part of it as well like you know what pain points do they have in their job that we could potentially fix using technology um and make sure that we're not shoehorning ai into everything i mean you know like people Sometimes you don't need it. No, being honest about it. like People sometimes get surprised when I say this, but um you know the data shows you a lot of things. you know Take player recruitment, for example. We have a fantastic director of player recruitment, Brian Carey, who's been in the game a long time. Now, I trust his eye more than the data at times because he will see little intricacies or little things that the data won't see.
00:22:27
Speaker
um you know So we're always very human-centric in our decision-making. We can arm the recruitment teams and the management teams with all the data that we can, make it applicable to football. But ultimately, you know we are human-centric at Reading. We want people to be armed with as much data as possible, but it's down to those guys who make the decisions you know and the little things that they see and hear and do. For me, that's the most important bit, and it's just complementing as much as we can with the ah with the data.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, like um there is that human or or not human, like trained instinct and I, you know, ultimately that yeah person who you mentioned, obviously, spent years um studying and learning. Ultimately, the LLM hasn't and might not have all that data and can miss other other areas. and I completely agree with you about the replacement. I think that we're definitely seeing it in certain pockets of the different industries where and there is particularly, i suppose, mundane tasks. um But I'm a big believer that AI is at night it's a tool and it's a 10x button yeah um and a a force multiplier. But again, it it is ah just a tool and it was not a 10x button unless you know how to use it and apply it in the in the right way. Yeah. um
00:23:41
Speaker
Stuart, obviously youve mentioned you mentioned League One, League Two budgets. you That's a a big factor in consideration for for when you're building and you've said that you're know you're not here to replicate and ultimately can't replicate what the Premier League model is. yeah But you do want to build out this this blueprint, I suppose, for what smaller clubs might be able to to replicate and I suppose help.
00:24:03
Speaker
obviously helped Reading first and foremost, but helped push the the the football industry forward. What what does this blueprint actually look like for for for you? it'd be good to contextualise that bit more.
00:24:14
Speaker
Of course. Yeah, so look, you know fundamentally in football, you have the haves and the have-nots.
Partnerships and Innovation in Football AI
00:24:20
Speaker
You have the Premier League money, you get the TV money. I mean, obviously your costs increase because players salaries transfers cost a lot more but equally you get the sponsorship and you get the tv money and you know ticket prices go up all this kind of thing so when you're in the lower divisions it is harder because you don't get the tv money as much as you know the premier league gets so doing projects like this is slightly more difficult um because you can spend a lot of money very quickly on ai you know if you go out and get a load of stuff off the shelf and you know you start
00:24:51
Speaker
building your own things, software engineers cost money, and you know, your GPU costs, you've got all these huge costs that you can potentially do with with AI. and So my model is all around partnerships. and We are very much and building partnerships with the right people who understand football technology, but want to scale, grow and, you know, use us essentially as a validation team. The way I've always kind of pitched Reading Football Club from an AI perspective is we want to be that team that you go to to validate technology to get early stage tech into a football club, validate it in a professional environment, our elite players, athletes, um you know work with us, help bring your mark your product to market quicker, get case study, and then you know potentially scale out through us as well. So we're exploring things like technology spin out business where we can you know commercialize some of the activities that we're doing. um
00:25:47
Speaker
and be very much a research and development style team because that's for me the model that is probably most applicable at this level. and You know there's tons of people that want to get involved in football that they have this great idea but actually how do they take it into professional environment. um You know it's a much sought after industry you know football's a sexy industry it can generate tons of data but actually getting into it and working with with Teams is quite hard. We want to kind of change that perception, especially based on our location. you know, we're based in Reading, which is like the Silicon Valley of the UK, you know, that every tech partner is based around us.
00:26:21
Speaker
you know, our stadiums are stones far away from the likes of, you know, Nvidia and Oracle and Microsoft. You you name the tech companies, they're generally in Reading or their staff live there. So it makes sense for us from a geographical perspective to kind of leverage these organizations, um but equally be a partner with them. You know, what i don't want it to be is a transactional partner.
00:26:41
Speaker
You know, candidly, if I wanted to do that, I'll put a tender out and, you know, it's a price war. um That's not what I look for. I look for growth partners. I look for organizations, you know so startups, scale ups, people that have had you know seed investment. right How can we help and assist you to get into the football industry? How can we kind of use our expertise and our staff's expertise, create these kind of growth partnerships and then and push forward? you know That allows us to bring AI in cost effectively. It's an opportunity for partners then to develop and learn from us as well.
00:27:13
Speaker
So you know where I spoke earlier about you have organizations that try and force things into sport. Well, know that doesn't work. You know, you hit the, you kind of go like that. and Whereas we want to kind of be that open door. Say, okay, well, look, we will work with you. We will give you the feedback about your solution, how you can potentially but you know improve it or if it works or it doesn't work, and then we can look to take it to market with you. So it's very much having this partnership mentality.
00:27:37
Speaker
That's what we've done because, you know can you know, if we wanted to say, yeah, we want to build all all our own models, we're going to go develop three different AI products, you know, the time is going to take from a cost perspective, from a, you know, the staff perspective, it it just doesn't make sense at this level. But what does make sense is partnering with people who are already doing this, want to work in pop and sports, want to work in this environment, and being an open door to them to say, actually, look, we're keen to work, we're keen to engage, we're keen to do something different.
00:28:05
Speaker
You know, my rob my owner Rob's very keen on me. We all be the pioneers of AI in football. The only way we'll do that is by having strong relationships with hyperscalers, with startups, scale ups, even from an academic perspective as well. you know, when we look at the low TRL technologies, how do we help and validate that in the real world to take kind of level two and three up to kind of the five six sevens um of the world and that's what we're looking at we're looking at how we work better with academic institutions all these type of you know spin out companies from universities because they're sitting on some really interesting ip but it's actually that real world application that we want to do and use and we think we're in a position at reading that we can do that
00:28:44
Speaker
Amazing. ah like scott I think yeah the partnership model and yeah it sounds like you you're only just getting started and it's clearly working and also great to give opportunities to yeah businesses, startups, to give them that opportunity to gain real world real world sort data and in a really niche area. right And yeah especially in the AI space, that data and real world data is is going to be so, so important. um sure i'd like to take i suppose a bit of time to look ahead um you know what what what is on the the road map really um what are some of the the big sort of projects which you've looked at and you're really excited to to get their application of of ai and ultimately what are you going to be working on over the the next year um i'm sure you know other many other folks that are going to be interested to hear what what what it is you're going to be tackling
00:29:38
Speaker
yeah i mean In terms of our FA's journey, kind of the stadium and the fan experience is
Enhancing Fan Engagement with AI
00:29:43
Speaker
the next thing. um you know Obviously, fans' experience at the stadium is is huge for us. you know We want people to come to football, we want them to enjoy it but we actually want them to feel part of it.
00:29:53
Speaker
And we're seeing this you know across the industry now, like the the expectations of fans are growing. you know We need to make sure that we're aligning with their needs, their expectations. can look at Gen Z, Gen Alpha, you know what their expectations are in terms of coming to sport, spending money with us, and actually making the experience enjoyable.
00:30:12
Speaker
um you know we you know Personally, I can't control what goes on the pitch, but we can help control what goes off the pitch. And if we can make that experience better, we can make it more seamless. you know we can We want people to come to the stadium earlier. We want them to stay longer. and you know We want to really engage with the fans, really kind of hyper-personalise when they come. you know I want people to come to Reading Football Club and come to the Select Carlees Stadium and really enjoy their time now i want to be seamless in terms of how you buy things how you engage with us how you get stats driven insights um that's what we're looking at the moment how can we improve the fan experience how can we make it better um how can we make it you know that people want to come to the stadium earlier stay longer you know incentivize them to do that um but actually make it an experience and you know with the american ownership we've done a number of different things like fireworks night and we've got Louisiana Day coming up because a lot of our own ships based out there. um
00:31:07
Speaker
This is then how do we apply you know ai and technology um into the the experience just to improve things. That could be things like wayfinding. It could be I mean, there's millions different things and that's the exciting part of my role. And not only do I look at kind of what's now, what's available, but actually moving forward, how can we do things differently? But how can we be that blueprint for others? So, you know, if they're looking at embarking on an AI journey, they can kind of say, okay, well, Reading did this. This is how they started. Maybe we should be seen. Because other teams are synonymous with this in recruitment. We look at Brighton and Brentford.
00:31:39
Speaker
um you know They're the guys that everybody looks at from a recruitment perspective because they were doing the AI bit way before everyone else. and We want to be seen as that team that people look at as a blueprint. Okay, well, they're doing that, so we should be working with them or working with the partners that we're that we're working with because they've got the track record of delivering it for Reading. If they can do it at Reading, they can do it here, they're everywhere.
00:32:00
Speaker
Excellent. and I suppose part of your journey is say it's going to be also growing out your team to help execute on that. yeah what What is it that that that that you look for when you you look to hire data professionals across the across the spectrum?
00:32:18
Speaker
yeah i mean As I said, each organization is different, it's how people fit into that organization. So from a football perspective, you know I have a guy, Sean, who works for me. By chance, he is a Reading fan as well.
00:32:31
Speaker
But he was doing a lot of the work kind of as a fan and doing that analytics pages and that kind of thing. And he reached out to me a bit like I reached out to Rob to say, like you know I'm looking at opportunities, this is what I'm doing, this is how I make it applicable to football, this is how this is my expertise. I've been to over 500 EFL games over the last couple of years. You know, he really spelt out like, you know, my passion is football. I'm, you know, data football. You know, I'm putting in kind of the the hard yards, you know, from a personal perspective to hone my craft, really keen to do that and but in the professional environment. um So, you know, a lot of it is cultural fit. How do they come into an organization? Do they understand the
00:33:11
Speaker
you know, the the workload, what the expectations are, what the deliverables going to be. you know, we are a small team behind the scenes, you know how do they fit in from an environment perspective? um And yeah, know, ultimately, what what value do they
Hiring for AI and Data Roles
00:33:24
Speaker
bring to the organization? you know, Sean had been building a number of things on his own, you know, doing it as a fan analytics page. And for me, that was a well,
00:33:31
Speaker
he's doing it that way, can't we do this internally and start, you know, really leveraging the expertise that he's got. and But, you know, as I said, no organization is the same. you know, one person might be a specialist in in football and understanding how you translate it. But then you go to an automotive industry or you go to another industry. I looked at it. Do they have that?
00:33:49
Speaker
experience in that sector, which means they get an understanding because you know when i when I bring people in, I i kind of give them the authority and trust to be the expert. Sean's coming, he is my data specialist. You are the guy that I will go to when I need something. Or you know if you bring someone else, they have to be that industry expert. They have to have that experience.
00:34:09
Speaker
um but ultimately i understand how they can translate things. And you know one of the expertise that we have internally is how do we take very complex data and translate it into football terms. And it's not just from a lack of data and you know knowledge, it's actually time.
00:34:23
Speaker
know People don't have a lot of time to go through masses of data, so we need to really translate things into tangible insights. um And you need that understanding of the industry to be able to do it. so That's what I look for. and you know I've always been somebody that empowers people. I like people to come in and be feel like they're empowered and that they they can take ownership. yeah I've never been a micromanager. I've always been kind of someone that's instilled a foot you know is still trust and you know kind of that authority to go and do what they're hired for. And to come up with ideas as well. One thing I really love is when people come to me and it's usually I get a WhatsApp at like half 10 at night, I've had this amazing idea, we need to do this. And you're like, great, that's exactly what I want people that feel they can come to me and say, yes, Joe, I've got this really cool idea, I want to do this, can I do it?
00:35:09
Speaker
And you know that that's how I built my career. That's how I've you know operated really good data people. um you know I've had some fantastic people that have worked for me in the past and it's just giving them yeah know that that freedom as such to you know like feel like that they can come to you and say, actually, Stuart, I know you're head up there. I really want to do this. I feel this is how it's going to buy into your strategy.
00:35:31
Speaker
And that's why I'm quite an open book about our strategy, because if the people that work for me don't understand it properly, then how can they develop and grow and do anything that has any meaningful value? Yeah, I think you make a really interesting point. just I mean, you obviously, it sort um football context and the importance of actually understanding what is going on and why. And i think that rings true for everything in data. I think a lot of people often say your data is data.
00:35:57
Speaker
um i I don't always agree with that because yeah there are so many different applications of data and Why AI is so hard to apply in data is because everyone has their own flavor and everyone has their own context to it. And I think yeah as we move into a more AI driven world, data professionals need to be more context savvy and and be closer to the business, whatever that is, whether that's football or fintech or automotive.
00:36:25
Speaker
so and It's what can data do? i mean you know a lot of people don't know i mean this is you know. There's a big education process. you know When I came in, it was like, here's the power of data and what we can actually do with it. you know Even like using ChatGVT or Grok or anything like this, you know's it's an education process for a lot of people. you know they They might not have used it. you know They might have used certain things. You might have used Copilot because it's installed on their laptop. But actually, when you take the time and show people, and one thing that we do internally as well, we run internal training sessions for people.
00:36:54
Speaker
Even the players, you know, we've upskilled some of the players in terms of using AI. You know, here's what it can do. Here's the art of the possible. um And it's just de-fearing it because I think some people do fear it and, you know, they're not sure what it can and can't do. So we're really strong on that kind of internal training process to make sure that people a know what it is, know what they can do with it and actually feel comfortable using it and asking questions. And that's why we have a very open book in terms of things at Reading. yeah If people got a question, they can come to me, they can ask, they don't feel like that you know they need to book at a meeting. It's just like can give me a call saying, Stu, can I do this? Can I do that? How does this work?
00:37:31
Speaker
And then just creating that you know inquisitive culture that you know enables people to think differently. Amazing. lala i We're almost at the end of the episode and I'm sure if anyone wants to reach out, learn more about um Reading Football Club and and how Stuart's supplying AI, i'm I'm sure as Stuart's mentioned, it can be definitely an open book. And yeah, if anything we've mentioned in the episode resonates with something you'd like to be ah part of, then I'm sure Stuart would appreciate you you reaching out. um but Before I let you go, Stuart, I suppose the final question is...
00:38:07
Speaker
what What's the biggest ambition for AI at Reading FC over the next next few
Defining Success for AI at Reading FC
00:38:13
Speaker
years? you know We're sitting down here in um two years' time. like What does success look like for you?
00:38:22
Speaker
i mean look Ultimately, success at Reading Football Club is winning. We're a football club. we want to win you know candidly we want to win um you know We want to get promoted to the Championship and Premier League. you know From an infrastructure perspective, we Premier League facilities. The only thing is our league standing isn doesn't align with our facilities. So for me, if we look back in two years, we want to say that actually once we got the data strategy sorted, we started implementing the things that gave us the marginal gains that AI assisted in in helping us get up.
00:38:51
Speaker
um you know Candidly, winning is everything in sports. you know It's winning, it's is creating the coherent strategy and then you know being synonymous with the teams that are doing it you know like i mentioned brighton brentford and you know i would love other teams that actually do you know what reading with a team that from the lower you know part of the pyramid implemented technology implemented ai um brought on a good head head of ai as well and uh helped us get the league that you know for me that's kind of like jokingly my nirvana um We know, as I said, we're human-centric as well, but you know we want AI to show its part, you know what it can do, and readying FCE to be the pioneers of doing this in the Football League.
00:39:32
Speaker
Excellent. Well, Stuart, thank you ever so much for for joining me. It's been great to hear about what your plans are and I suppose this blueprint that yeah that you're building. And I love the the human-centric nature of it. i think he's obviously clearly already resonating well within the within the club. And yeah, wishing you Reading all the best for the the rest of the season.
00:39:54
Speaker
Brilliant. Thank you for having me Cheers, everyone. We will see you in a couple of weeks. Bye-bye. Hi, everyone. Just a quick one from me. If you've enjoyed today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you could hit that follow button or leave us a rating.
00:40:07
Speaker
Even better, pass the show on to a friend who might also get some insight from it. It really helps us grow the community and continue to share amazing conversations. I also wanted to take a minute to talk to you about Cognify.
00:40:19
Speaker
Those of you that don't know, Cognify is the leading recruitment partner for modern data teams. We help some of the world's best organizations scale data and drive real value from the players that they make. If you're thinking about building a team or making a hire and you're struggling with talent or just want some insights on the market, then I'd love to jump on a call with you and tell you a bit more.
00:40:43
Speaker
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00:40:55
Speaker
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00:41:09
Speaker
Again, thanks for listening and look forward to seeing you a few weeks time.