The fitness and wellness software company says AI should take care of the busywork, giving gym staff more time to focus on members
Artificial intelligence is everywhere in fitness right now, in marketing, scheduling, member engagement and even personal training.
So when Daxko declared an AI-first strategy, it stood apart.
The software company wasn’t pointing to a single update, but outlining how AI will drive the future of fitness and wellness technology and what operators should expect as a result.
Daxko, which serves a wide range of health, fitness and wellness organizations, publicly committed to the strategy late last month, announcing it would reorganize its technology, teams and culture around AI.
The shift, executives say, mirrors both how quickly AI is advancing and how overwhelmed operators feel trying to make sense of it.
“We were starting to hear, obviously, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of questions in the market,” Wes Gillette, Daxko’s chief product officer, told Athletech News. “Our customers are asking us, ‘Hey, what do I do?’”
Instead of letting those questions hang, Daxko chose to respond with a multi-year investment spanning architecture, data, security and support.
By processing billions of scheduling, billing, check-in and engagement transactions each year across more than 20 million members, Daxko says it has a level of operational context that becomes especially valuable as AI is put to work.
Internally, Gillette said, the AI-first declaration was as much about focus as technology, a commitment that includes expanding internal teams and strengthening technical foundations — a notable counterpoint to fears that AI inevitably leads to leaner organizations.
“We actually see this as a productivity multiplier, particularly for our customers,” Gillette said, pointing to staffing challenges and the growing complexity of member communication. “We think we can bring AI forward and use it to multiply productivity and help them grow their businesses.”
Operators, for their part, are both intrigued and uneasy. Interest is high, but so is concern, especially around data security and misuse.
Wendy White, Daxko’s chief marketing officer, said the conversation has shifted sharply over the past six months. Early interest focused on generative AI for content and advertising. Now, questions are more fundamental.
“How do I protect my data? How do I create better end-to-end digital experiences for our customers?” White said. “Nobody wants to either create a bad customer experience through hallucinations, or they’re worried about exposing data out beyond their firewall.”
That anxiety helps explain why Daxko is firm about keeping AI inside its own secure environment. The software company says customer data does not train external models or leave its trust boundaries, a distinction Daxko sees as crucial as clubs experiment with conversational tools and automated follow-ups.
With data spanning nonprofits, multipurpose clubs and boutique studios, Daxko says that breadth matters as AI models are trained across different operating environments.
“Nobody else is going to be in a position to do that as well as Daxko, because we have all that data,” White said, pointing to patterns around seasonality, engagement and retention.
Such insights help daily gym operations in several ways: predicting churn earlier, automating outreach, optimizing class schedules and even helping staff spend less time behind desks and more time on the floor with members.
“We’ve talked a lot about the 25th hour in the day that we’re looking for,” Gillette said. “Guess what? We just found the 25th through the 36th.”
By taking on the administrative weight (the backend tasks that are essential but time-consuming), AI can make fitness businesses feel more personal, not less, according to Daxko, and that is exactly what operators appear to want.
“It’s really about everybody doing their job faster or better or deeper,” White said.
