The ukactive Digital Futures programme is entering its next phase, and this time the fitness and leisure sector is getting something it has long needed: clearer guidance, sharper digital self-awareness and, mercifully, a little less staring blankly at dashboards as though they were written in ancient Sumerian.
Announced on 11 June, the refreshed programme from ukactive, delivered in partnership with Sport England, is designed to help organisations across the physical activity sector understand and improve their digital capability. It is supported by strategic partners Gladstone, EGYM, Xn Leisure and PerfectGym.
Since launching in 2021, Digital Futures has become one of the sector’s most established digital maturity initiatives, with more than 335 fitness and leisure operators, National Governing Bodies, Active Partnerships and sector organisations taking part.
That matters because digital transformation, despite being talked about with the breathless enthusiasm usually reserved for new driver releases and miracle diets, is often far messier in practice. Some organisations are still getting the foundations in place. Others are wrestling with data, interoperability, cybersecurity, AI ethics and links into health pathways. In other words, everyone is somewhere on the same road; some are just wearing better shoes.
A New AI-Supported Assistant Joins The Programme
The headline addition is a new AI-supported assistant, introduced to help organisations interpret their Digital Futures results and understand the steps they can take next.
The assistant has been developed to explore how personalised digital guidance can support better decision-making in practice. Rather than handing operators a dense set of findings and wishing them luck, the enhanced programme aims to offer clearer, more tailored recommendations based on each organisation’s own context, priorities and level of maturity.
This is not about prescribing a single route to digital enlightenment. The sector is too varied for that. A community-based organisation, a leisure trust, an independent operator and a National Governing Body are not all wrestling with the same problems, even if the word “digital” tends to flatten them into one large, ominous spreadsheet.
Instead, ukactive Digital Futures is being positioned as a practical support tool: part mirror, part map, part polite nudge in the ribs.
Built With The Sector, Not Dropped On It
Digital Futures has been shaped through sector-wide collaboration, including input from ukactive’s Digital Futures Advisory Group.
Over the years, that group has brought together strategic partners including Gladstone, EGYM, Technogym, LesMills and Myzone; contributing partners including Xn Leisure, PerfectGym and Leisure Labs; and participating organisations including Everyone Active, Parkwood, Sandwell Leisure, Pembrokeshire Leisure, Yorkshire Sport, London Sport and England Golf.
The overarching ambition is simple enough to state, though rather harder to execute: help the sector use digital technology to increase organisational impact and improve experiences for colleagues and communities.
In June last year, the Advisory Group reviewed the programme’s progress and impact, drawing on four years of national data and extensive sector consultation. That review found strong progress among organisations consistently participating in the programme, while also identifying the need for clearer guidance, independent support and specialist workstreams.
That is where the next phase comes in. The programme will now focus on drawing in more organisations that have not yet taken part, improving support for those at lower and mid-levels of digital maturity, and creating greater collaboration among more advanced organisations.
The 2026 Priorities: Reach, Action And Health
For 2026, ukactive has identified three central priorities for Digital Futures.
The first is reaching more of the sector. Clearer communications, targeted outreach and an improved consultation experience are intended to make it easier for more organisations to participate, including Active Partnerships, National Governing Bodies and other non-leisure organisations, with support from Peripheral.
The second is turning insight into action. Enhanced results, more personalised recommendations and the AI-supported assistant will help organisations understand their current position and decide which practical steps to take next.
The third is connecting digital with health. This is where the story gets more strategically interesting. Higher-maturity organisations will be encouraged to collaborate on data sharing, interoperability and stronger links between the physical activity sector, health and social care.
That may sound like the sort of phrase that appears on conference slides next to a stock image of people smiling at a tablet. But done properly, it is vital. Better data infrastructure, more secure systems and stronger digital links with health pathways could help physical activity organisations play a more credible role in prevention, rehabilitation and community wellbeing.
AI, Cybersecurity And Open Data Move Up The Agenda
The next phase of ukactive Digital Futures will also continue to support workstreams in digital health, cybersecurity, responsible AI adoption and open data.
Those are not decorative extras. For fitness and leisure organisations, digital maturity now reaches well beyond booking systems and membership emails. It touches personal data, health information, operational resilience, customer experience, accessibility, reporting, evaluation and the ability to collaborate credibly with public health partners.
AI, in particular, is arriving in the sector with all the subtlety of a four-iron through a conservatory window. The opportunity is real, but so are the risks. Ethical use, data integrity and secure implementation are no longer issues for “the tech people” in the back room. They are board-level concerns.
Allison Savich, Innovation and Digital Lead at Sport England, said: “Digital capability is essential for fitness and leisure operators to help more people get active and stay active.
“Digital Futures is supporting organisations to grow their confidence, adopt best practice and collaborate on shared challenges – strengthening the entire ecosystem and helping operators to serve their communities better.”
A Programme For The Digitally Confident — And The Digitally Nervous
The most useful thing about Digital Futures may be that it does not assume everyone is starting from the same place.
Some organisations need basic foundations: cleaner systems, better data capture, clearer internal responsibilities and a more coherent view of the customer or participant journey. Others are ready to look at interoperability, advanced analytics, data sharing and links into health and social care.
That flexibility matters. Digital transformation has a habit of being sold as a grand leap into the future, when for many organisations the real victory is knowing which problem to fix first.
Dave Gerrish, Strategic Lead for Digital at ukactive, said: “Digital Futures continues to evolve with the needs of the sector and the next phase is about making our support clearer, more practical and more personalised.
“Every organisation, regardless of size or maturity, can take meaningful steps forward, and those that participate consistently are able to build confidence, strengthen capability and make more informed decisions about the future.
“Over the coming months, we will be introducing new partnerships, resources and opportunities for collaboration, ensuring organisations have access to the support, insight and expertise they need to accelerate progress.”
Why Fitness Organisations Should Pay Attention
ukactive is encouraging organisations across the physical activity sector to complete the Digital Futures consultation in 2026. That includes independent operators, public and private sector operators, trusts, National Governing Bodies, Active Partnerships, suppliers and community-based organisations.
The consultation is free to access and available year-round.
For a sector that increasingly finds itself straddling fitness, public health, technology, community engagement and social value, the timing is pointed. Operators are under pressure to prove impact, improve participation, use data responsibly and meet customers where they now live — which is, very often, somewhere between a mobile screen, a wearable device and a late-night promise to “start again Monday”.
Digital Futures will not solve every problem. No programme can. But by giving organisations a clearer view of their own digital maturity, and by adding AI-supported guidance to help convert insight into action, ukactive is at least handing the sector a better compass.
And in a world where too many digital strategies still resemble a gym induction delivered during a fire alarm, that is progress worth noting.
