Team Up (Australia) | AI platform that connects adults to team sports opportunities

When people are in school, it is much easier to participate in sports, namely because they are organized around schools or clubs. This trend bears out in statistics, too, as in the Australian state of Victoria, participation dwindles from 57 percent to 32 percent as children age into late adolescence. This has an effect, as sports bring with them a feeling of social connectedness in addition to the obvious physical benefits.

For Ahan Khiani of Melbourne, technology presents an opportunity to remedy this issue and “get in the game,” so to speak. This led him to create Team Up, a web app that helps adults find local teams, casual games, and community clubs to get involved with. By using it, people are able to find activities more easily, improving their physical health and strengthening their mental wellbeing by bonding with others in informal social settings. With this app, Ahan has filled a participation gap and so well that he has earned himself the designation of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Ambassador.

Origin and Development of Project

The idea for Team Up came from Ahan’s personal experience: at local basketball courts, he and his friends were frequently unable to find enough players and were forced to cancel games as a result. This was a point of frustration, particularly for players who had already taken the time out of their day to show up at the courts. So Ahan simply though: if people want to play but still aren’t showing up, maybe it’s because they don’t know where the games are. So why not bring the games to them?

A key part of the appeal of Team Up is that it allows users to set preferences, including desired sports, location, and availability. Once the preferences are set, an agentic AI system matches existing activities to them and coordinates options, acting as a smart bridge between people who want to play and organizers who want players.

Developing an app such as this as not been without challenges, as Ahan has had to deal with developing an accurate AI matching system that adults can rely on for smart, meaningful recommendations. Like any successful AI agent, it needs to understand each user, knowing in detail what their sport preferences are, as well as their schedule and confidence level, perhaps even better than they do, and make credible suggestions based on that data. Ahan has been working to make sure Team Up is capable of this level of precision in matching, with his process consisting of thorough testing, refinement, and real-world feedback.

How Solve for Tomorrow Benefited the Project

When Ahan arrived at Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, Team Up was not much more than a simple concept of finding people to fill in for his own sports team. At the competition, he learned valuable design thinking concepts that allowed him to develop the app further, as well as regimented mentoring and feedback. Ahan took this valuable learning experience and applied it to refining Team Up to the point it is at now, a two-sided solution that serves both organizers and adults interested in participating in organized sports, by speaking with players, teams, and councils. Now, Ahan feels he is part of a global community of young innovators, giving him the confidence and perspective he needs to scale Team Up beyond Melbourne and make a global impact.

Looking Forward

The next step for Ahan is to text the program with local teams, universities, and players to allow each user group’s feedback to refine the matching logic and experience. He will provide users with a free, premium version of the app that will encourage as many people to try the service as possible. Once he establishes a user network, he plans to expand to Australian cities outside of Melbourne, like Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane, before eventually teaming up with partners in different countries with strong sports cultures.

For young innovators in a position like his, Ahan believes the key is to approach the development of an idea from a place of empathy and understanding. “Take the time to listen carefully to the people around you, especially the ones who are being left out, and let their stories change and strengthen your idea,” he said. “When you combine that empathy with creativity and technology, even something as simple as helping one more person find a team can turn into a project that genuinely changes how people feel seen, connected, and included.”

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Ambassadors will be officially appointed at a ceremony held in Milan on Feb. 10-11, in conjunction with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Find out more about Solve for Tomorrow at [link].