Thematic analysis and future directions of artificial intelligence integration in physical education and sports in China

With the continuous integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the physical education and sports (PES) domain, the interdisciplinary field of PES AI has begun to take shape, spanning areas such as athletic training, physical education, public fitness, sports media, and venue operations. Based on 114 relevant academic articles selected from 131 retrieved Chinese core journal papers (2020–2025) in CNKI and Wanfang databases, this study employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for thematic modeling, followed by manual coding to refine and merge seven preliminary topics into four core thematic categories: (1) AI-driven digital transformation in physical education, (2) AI-enhanced training optimization and intelligent officiating systems in competitive sports, (3) AI-powered public fitness services and health governance integration, and (4) AI-driven transformation in sports media and smart venue operations. The findings reveal that AI applications in education emphasize personalized instruction and intelligent assessment; in training, they focus on talent identification, performance analysis, and adaptive optimization; in fitness promotion, AI supports individualized exercise prescriptions and proactive health management; and in media and venue management, digital construction and intelligent dissemination are becoming central trends. This study further discusses existing limitations in theoretical depth and practical implementation. It suggests that future development of sports AI must address both technical and ethical challenges, aiming toward a human-centered and collaborative intelligence paradigm.