Dive Brief:

• Planet Fitness is installing "digital plumbing" across its stores and franchises, growing a data network which can change how the company can "connect, collect, learn and interact" with 10.5 million members, said Craig Miller, chief digital and information officer at Planet Fitness World Headquarters, speaking Wednesday at The AI Summit in New York. Miller joined the company in August.
• Miller has set out to determine not only how people work out, but also why they stop. Understanding motivation will help Planet Fitness tackle the "high churn" rate that many gyms experience. 
• Over the next few months, Miller wants to build the "digital engine" and by Q2 wants to start implementing an AI platform, which can help churn through the data. By 2019, Planet Fitness plans to launch the digital, adaptive coach, Miller said. 

Dive Insight:

With ready access to practically unlimited cloud storage, companies are amassing large stores of data. But many organizations are sitting on these data troves without a plan to create actionable insight to drive value to the business. 

That's where AI can come into play. By injecting intelligence into data stores, companies can better understand why certain products are working or understand why people are not engaging. 

Companies like Planet Fitness have a real opportunity. The consumer world is increasingly connected, with chips in everything from shoes to watches to fitness machines. Collecting all that data can allow a company to understand how consumers are behaving and determine a better way to engage. 

For Planet Fitness, that potential includes tailored workouts and frequent engagement to make fitness frictionless for consumers. But as Miller notes, the first thing to do is to create the infrastructure that can support an intelligent platform.