YOU can’t escape AI right now. Whether you’re using ChatGPT to revolutionise how you do business or whether you’re worried about what it will mean for jobs and our wider security, artificial intelligence is a buzzword on everyone’s lips.

What could it mean for the golf industry? Will our future woods and irons be custom designed for us by AI? Will lessons be carried out by virtual online teachers?

How are the equipment manufacturers reacting and how will The PGA use it to better serve their Members and the wider sport?

 “There are a huge amount of unknowns,” said Richard Barker, Executive Director - Business Development at The PGA, part of an expert panel that debated the issue during GBQ Live at the Association’s Partners’ Day at Slaley Hall.

He was joined by influential industry figures including Phil Craghill, co-CEO of marketing agency GMS, who have represented Ping for a quarter of a century.

Asked by host Sarah Stirk how AI will impact the equipment sector, Craghill said: “It’s going to get bigger. There are two things. One is generative AI, which Ping don’t use at this moment in time and allows somebody to design a clubhead using AI.

“They don’t use that. Some people do and are very comfortable talking about that and I’m sure it will happen at some point.

“But what it does allow is for our 100 engineers at Ping to crunch through so much more data so much quicker and allows them to project things they never could without spending months of using their PhD degrees.

“The speed at which they can do something now and look at that technology and say – this could be a real winner or discard it – means they can move forward so much quicker than ever before.”

Considering what it meant for the golf industry as a whole and The PGA, Barker said: “I think golf traditionally is not a quick adopter of these things. I think it will be interesting to see what sections of the golf industry adopt AI and how they do that within their businesses.

“For us, how members interact with The PGA will completely change. PGA Learn is our CPD platform for content. It’s a traditional search engine – so you might want some support on writing a business plan and you’d search on that platform and you might be given 20 or 30 different articles to read.

“You’re not going to skim through 20 or 30 different articles. AI will serve you real-time better content. So how we provide and present that content will dramatically change.

“We’re spending quite a bit of time talking about how AI would impact coaching and fitting in the future – two really primary roles of PGA Members.

“Will consumers be able to go onto a platform, upload their swing, and get a lesson? That technology is already there. It’s actually worryingly quite good.

“I don’t think that will ever replace an in-person lesson but will it supplement it? Will it add to it? Yes. So there are a lot of unknowns is what I would say.”