Hey Reader,

AI just changed who wins in football careers. And it's not who you think.

This week I started playing with OpenClaw (Clawdbot), check it out if you haven't already. It's mind blowing.

It's also a week where I had a conversation with David Sumpter, who is professor and has co-founded an AI analytics company in Twelve.

We were discussing how AI is changing the landscape for who is going to be successful in football careers.

Times are changing

Five years ago, you needed programming knowledge to progress. You needed to understand APIs. A technical background was non-negotiable.

These skills are becoming less important in the world of AI.

Being able to code has never been easier. Training models is becoming easier too.

So in a world where technical skills are becoming easier to acquire (or at least easier to execute on with AI), who are the winners?

People first industry

The same people who've always won in football.

Football has always been about opinions, game-knowledge and connections. It's a people-first industry, and it's been that way since the sport started.

The people who can articulate themselves and transfer knowledge are the ones who will get opportunities.

But previously these people can lack some of the technical analysis skills.

Like coding, data visualisation, building databases.

Until now.

The future

You no longer need to be able to code to use an API.

You don't need a machine learning background to implement AI into your workflow.

This means people with the communication, football knowledge and soft-skills can focus on their strengths and leverage AI to help them with the technical skills.

This week one of my Recruitment Room members showcased this brilliantly. Eamonn is still new to coding, but he was able to whip up an analytics dashboard using Lovable.

All within a few hours, using AI to handle the coding. No computer science degree required.

This is where football is heading. This is where AI is heading.

Who's going to win?

Football knowledge. Strong networks. Clear communication. These always mattered.

Now they're the only things that matter. The people who can engage, who can transfer insight, who can build relationships - they're the ones who'll progress.

Technical skills used to be the barrier. Now AI handles that. Soft skills are what separate you.

It's only going get easier to code and build apps.

If this gives you more time to transfer insight and knowledge, and you do that well, then you will win.

The technical barrier just disappeared. What's your excuse now?

Liam