Nobody wants to see a player injured during the Super Bowl, but few fans realize the behind-the-scenes work being done to keep athletes safe. Preventing injuries isn’t just about physical training—it requires cutting-edge tech, data-driven insights and the ability to drive adoption across an entire organization.

Jennifer Langton, a strategic executive with a diverse career spanning from CFO at Atari to 15 years with the NFL, has witnessed waves of technology come and go. Yet, amid the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, one age-old concern has remained her primary focus: safety.

As senior vice president of player health and innovation at the NFL, a role she held from 2013 to 2024, Langton developed the league’s first injury reduction strategy and spearheaded the Digital Athlete program. This pioneering initiative leverages AI and machine learning to provide comprehensive player insights—potentially predicting and preventing injuries.

Using data from multiple sources gathered during training, practice and games—including player stats, video footage and sensors that monitor performance via embedded tracking devices—Digital Athlete runs millions of simulations with AWS technology to assess risks and optimize performance. Teams have access to the Digital Athlete portal, which provides training volume, injury risk insights and league-wide benchmarks. Coaches and training staff use this data to tailor prevention and recovery plans.

Development of the initiative began in 2019, with a pilot program involving several teams. Now implemented across all 32 NFL clubs, Langton says this technology marks a significant advancement in player health and safety.

Beyond sports, however, Langton believes HR leaders can take valuable lessons from her experience, particularly in driving the adoption of new technology within complex organizations.

Making technology relatable

The biggest challenge in implementing new technology isn’t the innovation itself—it’s changing behavior. Langton stresses that people are far more likely to adopt technology when it is designed for them and developed with their input.

“If you don’t educate and don’t connect to individuals, you won’t get the return,” she explains. Successful adoption requires clear communication that amplifies the knowledge and skills of those expected to use the innovation.

While any tech initiative must align with organizational goals, it must also be built with the end users in mind. Langton highlights the importance of personalizing education.

For elite athletes and their advisors, changing long-standing practices is challenging. Similarly, in HR, shifting workforce behaviors to embrace AI requires a thoughtful, people-centered approach.

Aligning stakeholders for tech adoption success

Creating the Digital Athlete program required extensive partnerships, including working with all 32 NFL teams to secure buy-in. Langton had to convince teams—each with its own training, health and safety staff—that the insights provided by AI-driven data would be meaningful and actionable.

The NFL partnered with AWS for this initiative. When the concept of the Digital Athlete was first conceived in 2016, AWS impressed Langton and her team with its work in machine learning. She says the tech giant’s team understood the NFL’s ambitious injury prevention goals and could scale insights quickly.

“AWS was the obvious choice given its best-in-class cloud technology capabilities and its unmatched ability to collect and make sense of large amounts of data,” says Langton

Digital twins and workforce transformation

Digital twin technology—using AI to create a virtual model of a real-world system—is core to the concept behind the Digital Athlete. Langton believes digital twinning has vast potential beyond sports, including the workplace.

A study published by Fortune Business Insights found that the global digital twin market, valued at $12.9 billion in 2023, is expected to grow from $17.7 billion in 2024 to $259.3 billion by 2032.

Already in use in urban planning, healthcare, manufacturing and aerospace, digital twins are now emerging as a transformative tool in HR. Digital twin functionality in HR can potentially leverage AI and real-time data to optimize workforce planning, talent management and workplace strategy.

Global analyst Josh Bersin recently wrote about digital twins built for customer service and claims agents—AI assistants that can cover when the real employee is away. He also envisions digital twins powered by deep knowledge of Workday, SuccessFactors and other systems. He predicts these twins will be able to process transactions, retrieve data and generate reports across multiple platforms.

“The digital employee has turned into a ‘digital analyst,’ who can find things and do work for you, saving you hours of effort in your daily life,” writes Bersin, pointing out that Vee from Visier—which HR Executive named the winner of the Excellence in HR Tech Innovation award in 2024—is designed for this.

Bersin has also made a connection between digital twins and AI agents, which he and other analysts say are advancing the next innovations in artificial intelligence for HR. Bersin notes a growing number of agentic use cases, which he says he’d be “willing to refer to as personalities.”

Key takeaways for HR leaders

Langton’s experience underscores that technology itself isn’t the revolution—behavioral change is. HR executives looking to drive AI adoption can learn from her approach to serving the NFL with these four strategies:

• Educate and connect. Adoption hinges on helping people understand the impact of new technology in their context.
• Involve stakeholders. Build technology with direct input from those who will use it.
• Align with big ideas. Employees need to see how AI supports broader organizational and personal goals.
• Leverage strategic partnerships. Collaborate with tech providers that understand your vision and can deliver scalable solutions.

As AI continues to reshape industries, HR leaders have an opportunity to apply these principles to drive meaningful transformation within their teams and the organization as a whole, Langton advises, saying, “Better technology for all levels has a trickle-down effect.”

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