From sports science in Doha to AI-assisted offside decisions, Qatar has made itself a showcase for technology in sport. Investor Nicole Junkermann explains why the people in the game stay at the centre.
Nicole Junkermann, investor and founder of NJF Holdings.
Qatar has spent two decades building an ambitious sporting ecosystem, and artificial intelligence is now part of the toolkit. For Nicole Junkermann, founder of the London-based investment firm NJF Holdings, the country offers a clear picture of how AI can help athletes, officials and fans while the game stays in the hands of the people who love it.
Her interests as an investor span artificial intelligence, health technology, sport and media, and she presents Nicole Junkermann’s AI Overview, a podcast and editorial platform about AI and the future of work. That mix makes Qatar’s approach to sport a natural subject.
A sporting city built on science
Doha’s Aspire Zone brings together Aspire Academy, which has developed young athletes since 2004, and Aspetar, a specialist orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital. Places like these depend on careful records: training loads, recovery notes and movement patterns gathered over whole seasons rather than single matches. That is exactly the kind of information AI tools are good at organising.
Nicole Junkermann sees a close link with medicine. Writing about how AI is changing healthcare, she has described the promise of faster research, sharper diagnostics and more time for clinicians to spend with patients, together with the need for careful oversight. Sports medicine sits right on that line. AI can bring patterns to light earlier, while doctors, physiotherapists and coaches decide what an athlete actually needs.
Motorsport adds another layer. Lusail International Circuit, home to Qatar’s Formula 1 and MotoGP races, hosts sports in which teams already live by data, studying every lap for small gains in grip, timing and tyre life. It is a reminder that AI in sport often starts with very ordinary questions answered very quickly: which setting works, which line is faster, and what the next session should test.
Officials, alerts and the final call
Qatar also hosted the moment AI-assisted officiating reached football’s biggest stage. During the 2022 World Cup, a semi-automated offside system paired cameras mounted beneath each stadium roof with a sensor in the ball itself. When it spotted a possible offside it flagged it to the match officials, they checked the evidence before confirming the decision, and the crowd then saw the moment replayed as a 3D graphic on the stadium screens. Qatar had already given the system an early outing at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup.
That sequence matches a principle at the heart of Nicole Junkermann’s thinking: AI can prepare options and sort information, while responsibility stays with people. In her AI Overview briefing on who is accountable for AI decisions, she puts it plainly: “People still make the decision.” In sport, technology gathers the evidence quickly and the officials keep the authority.
“Delegate the process. Keep the judgement.”
NICOLE JUNKERMANN
Fans at the centre of the next chapter
Qatar’s sporting calendar keeps that conversation going. The FIBA Basketball World Cup arrives from 27 August to 12 September 2027, with its venues in a single city, and Doha will host the Asian Games in 2030. Compact events like these suit AI tools that help supporters plan their day, find their way around and follow results in their own language, from Arabic and English to the many languages supporters bring from around the world. Nicole Junkermann has looked at that everyday planning in a short AI Overview explainer on AI and sport schedules, showing how reminders and simple notes can keep a sporting week organised.
For Nicole Junkermann, that is where AI earns its place in sport. As more of the game becomes data, the moments people share in the stands, the conversation after the final whistle and the pride of a young athlete stepping onto a big stage matter more than ever. Technology can make those moments smoother and fairer, while the moments themselves stay entirely human. Qatar, with its mix of sports science, careful officiating and a growing events calendar, shows how well those two ideas can sit together.
About Nicole Junkermann
Nicole Junkermann is an entrepreneur and investor with two decades of experience across technology, healthcare and media. She is the founder of NJF Holdings, a London-based private investment firm and family office, and the presenter of Nicole Junkermann’s AI Overview.