Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Resource Allocation Efficiency of Public Service for Sports and FitnessEmpirical Evidence Based on Provincial Panel Data

Resource allocation of public service for sports and fitness is suffered from efficiency losses such as supply-demand mismatch, information asymmetry, and poor cross-departmental coordination for a long time, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) offers a promising solution for these problems. Drawing on the strategic triangle perspective and using panel data from 30 provinces of China from 2013 to 2022, this study employs a double machine learning model to examine the impact of AI on the resource allocation efficiency of public service for sports and fitness, with a parallel test of three concurrent pathways: sports industrial structure upgrading, technology diffusion, and government governance capacity. The results shows that: 1) AI can significantly improve the resource allocation efficiency of public service for sports and fitness, and can effectively mitigate the existing allocation losses. 2) AI enhances efficiency by promoting sports industrial structure upgrading and accelerating technology diffusion, whereas the government governance capacity fails to pass the significance test, reflecting that cross-departmental data sharing and institutional coordination remain critical bottlenecks for the AI＋ initiative in empowering national fitness. 3) Both macro-environment and sports-specific environment strengthens AI’s positive effect on resource allocation efficiency. Based on these findings, this study provides following recommendations: promoting intelligent upgrading of the sports industry, building technology diffusion networks, removing governance barriers, and implementing differentiated allocation strategies.