Playlist CEO Fritz Lanman: AI Won’t Replace Humans, It’ll Make Brands Better
Lanman, the longtime Mindbody and ClassPass CEO, spoke during the ATN Innovation Summit about the recent launch of parent brand Playlist, and about the future of AI in fitness and wellness
Fritz Lanman has a message for every fitness and wellness executive: you should embrace artificial intelligence with open arms, and you shouldn’t worry that AI is going to replace humans.
At the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, Lanman, who serves as the CEO of Playlist (parent brand for Mindbody, ClassPass and Booker), sat down for a one-on-one fireside chat with Athletech News founder and CEO Edward Hertzman.
During the chat, Lanman discussed the decision to create Playlist as a unified parent brand, while giving his candid thoughts on the future of AI in fitness and wellness. He also took some time to defend ClassPass, the highly popular but often maligned class-booking platform.
Inside the Launch of ‘Playlist‘
Lanman said Playlist was created in part because it was a “mouthful” for consumers to have to refer to Mindbody, ClassPass and Booker when talking about the entire company. But bigger than that, the move reflects the company’s desire to move beyond just fitness and wellness and into the wider world of in-person experiences.
Describing social media platforms as “modern cigarette” companies due to their abilities to keep people glued to their phones, Lanman said Playlist’s software is meant to do the opposite – empower businesses that help people get out into the real world. That includes gyms and studios, but it goes deeper than that.
“What we’re really about is about getting you out of your screens and into the real world,” he said. “Playlist reflects this. We’re trying to help give you a ‘playlist’ for in-real-life, local experiences … that’s going to help you become the healthiest, most inspired version of yourself.”
Fitness Brands Should Embrace AI, Not Be Fearful
Lanman, who previously served as an executive at Microsoft and personally invests in around 150 tech startups, wants to see the fitness and wellness industry lean fully into the era of AI. He also wants the industry’s stakeholders to get over any fears that artificial intelligence will make humans obsolete.
“I think it’s important for this industry to hear, from a tech person, … that we’re not going to be replaced by AI,” Lanman said.
Lanman believes the current wave of AI innovation being led by companies like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic is “really amazing, but it’s not going to fully replace humans.”
“What it is going to do is empower and democratize the ability to do really deep and incredible analytics, really great personalized marketing and things like that to help businesses … grow and be more effective. So I see us heading toward an age of human augmentation, not substitution,” he said.
While Lanman believes that it’s the job of tech providers like Mindbody and ClassPass to give fitness brands easy-to-use artificial intelligence tools to help grow their businesses, he also believes gym and studio operators must take some responsibility for becoming proficient with AI.
“It’s incumbent on operators to use these tools,” he said. “If you’re not using ChatGPT already, you’re behind the game.”
The Case for ClassPass
Lanman, who has served as the CEO of ClassPass since 2017, also addressed some of the common complaints studio owners have expressed with the popular class-booking platform. Those complaints, he argued, stem from a fundamental misunderstanding about what ClassPass is designed to do, and how it’s designed to be used by businesses.
According to Lanman, ClassPass is designed to help studios fill excess capacity – those last few seats they wouldn’t have been able to fill without the platform. It shouldn’t be the primary way studio owners seek to fill the majority of their class spots.
As a result, ClassPass probably won’t turn a struggling boutique fitness studio into a successful one, but it can help solid businesses become even better by maximizing revenue.
“I think the two biggest misconceptions would be, one: (ClassPass) can’t save a business that’s not going to work on its own, and two: you shouldn’t use it primarily for lead generation, you should use it for excess capacity liquidation,” Lanman said.
This article is based on a live discussion held during the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a two-day event dedicated to the future of fitness and wellness. See here for More Innovation Summit coverage.