Tech That Sticks: Al Noshirvani on AI, M&A, and What’s Next for Fitness Business

In this episode of All Things Fitness and Wellness, Krissy Vann is joined by Al Noshirvani—Co-Founder and Managing Partner at ALTA Technology Group, and the founder of The Fitness Technology Summit. With decades of experience at the intersection of fitness, tech, and investment, Al brings a well-informed perspective on where the industry is heading and how operators can stay ahead of the curve.

They unpack what’s actually working on the gym floor in 2025—moving beyond hype to real applications of AI, predictive analytics, and personalization that drive retention and business results. Al also shares key takeaways from the recent UK edition of the Fitness Technology Summit, revealing how global operators are adapting differently and what North American businesses can learn.

The conversation covers the current wave of M&A in the fitness industry—what’s fueling the trend, who’s making the smartest moves, and how capital is being deployed across tech and brick-and-mortar. Plus, Al offers a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Fitness Technology Summit in Chicago, including what topics will be center stage and why the event is becoming a must-attend for leaders and innovators in the space.

Whether you're scaling a fitness business, building the tools that support it, or advising from the boardroom, this episode is packed with strategic insight, practical takeaways, and a few unexpected laughs along the way.

Learn more about The Fitness Technology Summit and grab your invite: 

https://thefitnesstechsummit.com/

Transcript

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fitness industry at the end of the day when it comes to the members is really a relationship industry and I would actually support the concept of the importance of AI but I would I would look at it as more of a strategic and internal tool as opposed to an outward facing one this is all things fitness and wellness hosted by Chrissy Van together we're uniting industry thought leaders and fitfluencers on the mission to inspire innovation and encourage people to live a life fit and well on this episode of the ATF W podcast I'm joined by Al Nashavani co founder and managing partner at Alta Technology Group and the mind behind the Fitness Technology Summit we're gonna dive into what's actually moving the needle for operators right now from using AI to predict churn to what personalized member experiences really look like in practice Alan packs key insights from the recent UK event and what it revealed about how global markets are adapting tech differently we're also gonna dig into the surge in MNA activity where capital is flowing and what trends are shaping the next chapter of fitness plus you're gonna get a sneak peek of what to expect from the upcoming Fitness Technology Summit in Chicago and why it's shaping up to be a must attend for anyone building or leading in the space before we get to the podcast be sure to hit like and subscribe we have new episodes weekly featuring industry thought leaders and influencers I'm your host Chrissy Van and this is ATF W Al Nasharwani joining me and you have come off the heels of the Fitness Technology Summit UK edition so this was the first time doing the event there tell me a little bit about why you decided to cross the Atlantic and take the event abroad yeah so the the last several years we've had a contingent of operators who've attended the us uh event and from from the UK and they really encouraged us to to bring the event over there and I think that we were smart to listen to them there clearly is a thirst for information a thirst for networking idea sharing etcetera and it really played out well we we it it far exceeded our expectations and um it was a an event that we got some really good feedback on and we're looking forward to next year's event in may well and I know it's gonna stay busy because as we'll talk about later in the podcast the countdown is on for the return of the Fitness Technology Summit in the States this time in Chicago but I'm really curious taking the event to the UK one thing that I noticed even going to something like Febo is there's so many lanes that parallel across the industry but also when you go market to market there's these key differentiators so when you brought the event to the UK what were some of the major differences in how UK or European operators are thinking about fitness tech compared to how they might be here in the US yeah and what I think it's really interesting several years ago at the Tech Summit in the US our third sort of theme was the convergence of healthcare and health club and that sort of continued to proliferate itself through the adoption of GLP programs insurance reimbursements all of those types of things a lot of gyms here in the US are focused on those as strategic growth initiatives they don't have that challenge in the in the UK specifically because obviously they've got a national health program etcetera and so um I think what they call public leisure has some is something that's always been around so um uh it's sort of part of their DNA they're not talking about GLP ones I should I shouldn't say that they are just starting to talk about GLP ones and the impact that those medications are gonna have on people's exercise habits and and the impact that it'll have on a fitness facilities performance I think that was probably the biggest differentiator the other thing I'd say is you know I've sort of been on a soapbox about how US operators uh don't take the time to really understand the technology that they're selecting and we've talked about this before Chrissy and I think that they they tend to be much more process oriented um particularly in the UK though we did have some non UK operators who came from uh sort of uh mainland western uh Europe um they seem to be much more process oriented in selecting vendors um you know at Alta the technology group one of the things that we do is we we help a lot of organizations go through that selection process and um this is something that vendor or uh operators in the in the European market have been doing for years in fact the first what we called invitation to tender or RFP that I remember getting was from a large chain of European operators called Homes Place and this was back in two 2001 2002 US operators weren't doing those types of things we are now and we're getting better at it there's still room for improvement but those were some of the biggest differentiations their differentiators I wanna leapfrog off of both of those and I'm gonna start with the GLP1 cause I know I was gonna get to it later in the conversation but I am curious because that conversation has dominated almost every session at every networking event that we've been to in the US over the last couple of years so when it comes to their talk on the opportunity that GLP1 can offer do you feel that they see it there in the UK like you say they're just kind of starting those conversations so I'm really curious what did surprise you about how they were coming to the table with it yeah I mean there they definitely people are aware of it but I would say the general general population hasn't adopted it the way that we have in North America um and I think that's where the differentiation is I think the the fitness industry operators understand it and and even like us here in in the US I'm in Canada I'm not sure that we fully uh have grasped GLP1 programming I mean I think everyone knows that you know something 40 or 50% of the US population at least is is taking Glps um but they've not necessarily um created programming in their facilities specific to um uh achieving certain outcomes what I see happening in the UK which was really interesting is they are sort of being much more uh systematic just like in other things that they do much more systematic in implementing programs around what they see as uh something that's coming at them and so again they're being much they're much more um I guess I'll use the word thoughtful although I'll probably get some heat for that but they tend to be much more thoughtful about jumping into new things uh and um you know their I think their adoption rates and their success rates sort of speak for themselves yeah fair enough and I mean it is fair to say the thoughtful touch and then you can also understand the psychological mindset here in North America the fact that it was coming it's coming quickly due to the way that pharmaceuticals able to advertise in the States adoption has happened a lot more rapidly and one thing that I find really interesting just in my own personal life in GLP1 is the willingness of consumers to talk about it excitedly the shift has happened so very quickly from something no one was mentioning and there's just the shift happening to something that they're celebrating which I think creates a lot of opportunity for us the other element that you talked about in regards to differentiators is kind of that that late adoption of technology sometimes how the industry has been marred by missing the Mark so Ulta does specialize in helping operators shape their fitness tech stack yeah I'm curious in 2025 and looking ahead because this is all about planning for the future what would you foresee as the most essential elements that operators should be looking at integrating that perhaps you don't see operators adopting as quickly as they should be well I think I think the safe answer is to talk about AI I mean everyone talks about it having said that I think my approach to AI is a little bit different than what others are talking about I think that many people um in our industry are sort of looking at AI agents to address things like membership sales or retention or saving a cancel or um prescribing exercise for a particular program and I think those things are great but at the end of the day I do share um the opinion of of a lot of folks in this industry that um you know the fitness industry at the end of the day when it comes to the members is really a relationship industry and I would actually support the concept of the importance of AI but I would I would look at it as more of a strategic and internal tool as opposed to an outward facing one and I'll give you a couple of examples there's a product for example called Skylark it's a it's a tool that you can go and subscribe to online I think it's uh dot AI is the is the domain and and and in essence you can go in there and do an entire analysis a market study from competitive pricing dynamics packaging product offerings promotional offerings all of those things and what you used to have to do was go literally shop the gems go you know walk around do tours act like you were interested in becoming a member hear about their offers and then go and react in your business I actually think that AI as a as business strategy tools is where we should really be focused because it's not quite there people still know when they're interacting with an AI agent versus a live human being sometimes it's a little bit clunky sometimes it gives you sort of weird answers voice AI still has a little bit to go I mean it's getting better and better and I I am sure that there will be a time where we can start to think about how we could potentially augment our front desk with AI and other uh solutions but I I really think the value of AI is on the b to B side like how can we leverage it to make our employees more productive how can we leverage it to uh create a strategic advantage in our business not necessarily from a member facing perspective but just from a planning perspective so that's that's the direction that um I'm encouraging uh the customers that we're working with to take and I think some of them have had incredible success well and you have a fair perspective here because not only have you been on the tech side but you're also an operator yourself you have Method Gym so in regards to future proofing your business where are you parlaying the emphasis and where are you really seeing the results being driven yeah so we we are definitely uh leveraging um you know GPT and AI and Gronk and all those types of things uh to make strategic decisions particularly around the type of equipment that we think members would like in a particular uh demographic and those things are helping us make decisions and our members are validating those decisions and you know that when that's where I'm really encouraging our management team to focus in leveraging AI to make business choices yeah it I think it's just one of those things where and we talk about this even in regards to data there's there's such a wave of information at this point in time but if you don't actually know how to apply it to your business then it's wasteful it might be the new gold but if you're squandering it then what's the actual point so it's really good example there obviously in regards to The Fitness Technology Summit not only did you do convergence of healthcare and health club as a theme in previous years but another element that I think that's really unique about your event is how you draw from other industries hospitality being one of them you bring experts even from the gaming side so as we look ahead I mean it's hard to believe we're halfway through 2025 at time of recording everyone's already looking ahead to 2026 and beyond what do you feel we should be drawing from parallel or other hospitality based industries that we aren't integrating well right now well I think data is is the answer right I mean I I think I've said before that our industry is a data rich information poor industry and it's a result of the systems that we utilize or misuse it's a result of implementing workarounds in the applications that we're using to accommodate you know certain business needs it's a result of having a fear in my view of two constituencies one of which is staff which are oftentimes uh it's sort of a revolving door we're losing people all the time and replacing them and of course the other one is members um you know I I do think that Covid has changed a lot of people Covid changed a lot of people's behaviors it's crazy that we're still talking about it but it's true um things like price increases have become a norm now I also think the fact that you know one of the largest HPLP operators in the world Planet Fitness increased their prices sort of open the door and the opportunity for everyone else to do the same um so I think that you know that those are the types of things that um I think we should be thinking about um you know how do we um enhance the member experience how do we increase staff productivity how do we use those two things to contribute to the bottom line if you can solve those those two variables that that's really what the answer is and we're going to talk about that in in Chicago this year and instantly the other thing I do want to talk about since you brought up Chicago Chrissy the other thing I'm really excited about is we're working with two of our uh premiere sponsors uh Egem and uh Zenodi and we are collaborating with the health and Fitness Association HFA to put together the first global industry consumer behavior report we will be financing that report from the uh contributions and the payments that people have made to attend the summit we're really excited about that and look forward to talking to you more about it when we get to Chicago okay this is intriguing so is this a report what do you feel the timeline will be because again data rich this is information that's highly actionable and valuable to operators yeah I think it's gonna take a little bit of time our goal would be to re to to publish the report in 2026 um probably mid 2026 is what our goal is we're partnering with a university we'll be making an announcement on that pretty soon um but this is gonna be a a well commissioned well funded uh research study that I think you can use whether you're in Beijing or in Washington and um we are uh we're really I'm really excited to to do this we've obviously partnered with HFA in the past um particularly when when when they were coming out of the really rough period post covid and I as a director and now vice chair of uh of the association I I really wanna help uh they're doing great work first of all and so I want to be supportive of that um obviously Chris Smith who you know very well did you know was was a phenomenal chairman for for a couple years and is going to remain as ex officio I look forward to continue to work with him and really leaning on him to help us with the study he doesn't know that yet now he will but I'll be putting call into him no doubt well and I I know I've done a couple interviews with members of the HFA this year and that's really been one of the mandates obviously the name change was the big announcement but they also were aiming to change the game and one of the big pillars of that was to provide more research and resources because at the end of the day if you're going to be an organization that's advocating you need to be able to back it up with stats and I think it's interesting the timing when you look to mid 2026 really nothing better as you pointed out yeah it sucks that we're still talking about Covid at the end of the day it had a game changing impact on this industry for worse and for better at the same time for those that have managed to move with it but consumer behavior is far from what it was when we went into that transition so being able to understand them better definitely something exciting to watch for another thing that's exciting to watch for is when you're at the Fitness Technology Summit one of the things that I really have enjoyed is that you always aim to highlight entrepreneurs that are bringing something fresh to the field and given the fact that your background has been technology and you have a huge passion for it I'm curious you travel a ton you're an operator yourself what certain things have you seen coming up in the market that are exciting you wow um there's so much out there you know from health tech to fit tech to biohacking to smart foods there's just a massive and we're gonna be making an announcement here pretty soon with regard to the Startup Spotlight and the four companies that were selected we get hundreds of submissions for the Startup Spotlight and it's something that um we we really um uh take pride in we started to do it at the first Tech Summit 14 years ago and um we continue to do it to this date it's been a um it's been a big draw for us but I'd say that you know across the board the convergence of healthcare and health club has it is really helped to bring a bunch of new companies that you would ordinarily you would not ordinarily associate with the health and fitness industry um and so uh yeah we're we're excited about it it's gonna be great you kind of noted there that's a part of the equation that's very exciting for a lot of people every single year what have been some of the success stories out of it cause I think for example I remember bout gracing the stage not that long ago and then you saw it hit some serious headlines thereafter so talk to me a little bit about what it can mean for some of these startups and the industry itself yeah we've had bout we've had promotion vault we've had Aloris um it's been a nice little springboard for people look the opportunities we we there's some rules for the startup spotlight we don't we don't let idea companies up there you have to have a product we want you to have a customer we we would prefer uh companies that have not taken on institutional financing so they're truly bootstrapped startups because that's what my company was when we started um so I'd say that you know the the the goal is to bring in a wide array of companies that bring different value to the to the audience and this really becomes a great opportunity for them not necessarily to raise money right because yeah sure there's some high net worth people in this audience that might be interested in investing but it really gives them the ability to be in front of decision makers as you know the The Tech Summit is a invitation only event we sort of limited to C suite executives and operators of of large multi location multi region or large standalone facilities and so this is the audience that you want and you get five minutes of their time to do your speed pitch and you know sit in the room with with these decision makers for two or three days it's perfect it's a perfect venue I wish I had something like that yeah without question it's such a leg up and to my point earlier when you follow some of these companies and where they've traveled since then we're not talking a little bump they've seen exponential growth and they're selected by peers that are highly knowledgeable in the room I mean that's what this summit is all about it's idea sharing I've covered it now for a couple of years and every single time people are like this is the intimate gathering of CEOs Ctos Cmos idea sharing at its finest and that's what this industry needs to innovate at the end of the day the same rule book does not apply we have to learn from each other and especially at a time that the industry seems to be growing exponentially you said it first not me but Covid era at the time thereafter there wasn't a lot of moving and shaking from an MNA perspective that has completely shifted as we've traveled through 2025 so tell me a little bit about your thoughts about the MNA activity and what we're seeing stirring not just here in North America but globally well I think that it comes from a couple of different things so first of all the the MNA activity that we're seeing right now is that you know health and fitness clubs are what Best Buy and Circuit City and Canadian Tire and all of these brands have been to retail properties for many years people are now looking to fill these strip malls or shopping malls with experiential solutions and health and fitness is one of them and I'd say that you know it's health fitness wellness beauty it's it's not just you know your typical gym anymore right we're talking about recovery we're talking about med spa there's there's so much more to it and so I think that has really resulted in a lot of folks saying okay look there's all of this open space out there in terms of real real estate availability health and fitness is a is the new anchor client quite frankly right and so we are the people that are driving a potential audience of 25 to 10,000 based on the size of the club to a particular location once they're there they'll start to go and use the dry cleaning services or the fast food or the new salad concept or whatever it is right and so I I think that that's really been a driver in in getting people to come into uh fitness I also think that you know the the the reality is that people um the GLPs have something to do with it covid certainly has something to do with it the fact that Covid put 25% of the uh operators in North America out of business you know you look at that and you say wow that's horrible but the reality is that the operators that are not here anymore were probably the operators that were not operating well right and so that's just and and there's been a little bit of a clean up and so I think the businesses are starting to behave much more maturely um two massive transactions with EOS and with crunch and lots of other refinancings including Equinox's debt facilities 24 Hour Fitness's debt facilities these were businesses that were struggling and wondering if they would be able to get out of the hole that they that they had been dug into uh and um uh you know obviously the Wall Street and and private equity and bankers are seeing the value that these businesses uh bring and so I think that for those reasons and then we talked about GLPs we talked about the fact that people for for at least two years four years ago it was pounded into their heads over and over again that if you were obese or if you had pre existing conditions and you were going to literally die um you know those are you know when you when you hear that it becomes a little bit of a motivator for you and so membership is growing I still think that non dues services like personal training are not fully back at all locations yet but you know that'll come with a little bit of time I think that you know the AI thing is gonna impact the return of that to an extent um but uh yeah I mean I just think that this is the new Sass right software as a service is something that private equity has been investing in for the last 25 years and quite frankly we are not that different in the fitness industry we are recurring revenue now it's just a matter of figuring out a way how we can retain it on the note of retention what do you think that path is because again you are experts in the tech stack and I know that it all integrates together yeah I mean I think I I think that um a lot of member retention starts inside the four walls of the club and not necessarily behind the front desk or behind a computer screen you know you still have to create a clean com competitive facility you still have to have good equipment um you still need to have good pricing all of those things and good value um but at the end of the day I do think the tech can play a role I actually in my clubs I recently deployed another one of our startups DX factor I'll give them a little bit of a plug here but DX factor um as a result of the click to cancel legislation which was being contemplated by the Federal Trade Commission here in the states had had deployed a application well these guys were quickly able to pivot and they're now uh showing uh instead of doing click to cancel they are spinning it as click to save so we now at our clubs and many other clubs that uh that they've deployed this solution out to um we have seen a reduction in our cancellations because people have the option you know right now it's a binary choice today you either pay me or you don't pay me you now have with a with with the click to cancel additional options we can give you a free month we noticed you only came in 5 times in the last you know 6 months let's let's take you down let's downgrade your membership um why don't you put your membership on freeze for a period of time that way you don't have to pay the dues increase when you come back so they've created some logic around this uh click to cancel click to save workflow um that has uh has had an impact on our on our retention it's been two months but the results from a member retention perspective seem to speak for themselves our our um our uh attrition is down close to 10% now we need to see whether those people that went on freeze come back or if they cancel once the freeze period is over so this is not a you know a magic pill here um and and the other side of the coin is these were all things that people were calling our clubs and our front desk to deal with and our staffing costs have also come down so all indications are positive but we'll have to revisit this later on Christine I'll give you the I'll give you the skinny yeah that's a great example though of you know the integration and then seeing results in real time I like that you highlight though it does happen within the four walls and I have had the opportunity to visit one of your clubs before and the members honestly spoke for themselves I'm glad that you brought up click to cancel because you also shared that you served on the board with the health and Fitness Association and I know that advocacy on the industry's behalf and wanting to encourage the industry's involvement is imperative and obviously there was a bit of disappointment when it came to the results of the fit act this year in the Senate but as we look at click to cancel there was recently good news with a little halt there so explain to people I mean you touched on why you've been involved for so long but why is it so important to have an active voice in this industry still and and using those kind of as an example that collectively everyone getting involved can move the needle yeah I mean I I think it um the results of click to cancel speak for themselves right we were being mandated to provide and and by the way it was interesting um after the FTC Pass basically declined to move forward with the click to cancel legislation which initially was um being considered primarily because of mobile phone apps that had free trial periods that would convert to to paid trial agreements one of the things that we um wanted to make sure that we um uh had the option of doing was um we wanted to give people the ability we just didn't want the mandate and to be lumped in so it was interesting after after the uh the legislation was dropped I looked at an article I can't remember if it was on Yahoo News or CNN or what what one of those on a website and it said the headline said your gym's worst behavior will continue for now and brutal it's just it's brutal and I'm thinking to myself this had nothing to do with James it had to do you know with apple and the fact that you know they would do these free periods and then start charging you subscription fees and it was difficult to cancel so you know I think first of all I I think we're on the advocacy side I think HFA has really helped to um change the image that our industry has from what it was and you know unfortunately the sins of your past continue to haunt you for a long period of time but um you know I think I think on the advocacy side sorry I I went on my soapbox there for a minute but on I love the soapbox that's what podcasts are built for soapbox moments haha um on the advocacy uh front um just because in the US the Federal Trade Commission which is a a government a federal government agency has decided that click to cancel is on pause for now that doesn't mean that any of the states are gonna pause it the reality is that the states can may have independent rules around um click to cancel and they could implement it again and in fact many are and HFA is doing the same thing they did at the federal level but now at the state level um this goes for lots and lots of other uh potential um rules and regulations that would impact us everything from you know membership paying taxes on membership paying taxes on personal training um making sure that an individual is protected if they use an AED on someone that's having a heart attack on the gym there's a lot more to the work that HFA does than the fit act and look the fit act we've given it a shot it's been you know in the works for many years we thought we really I mean we really got it to the finish line and unfortunately because of the dysfunction that you know our government is currently dealing with um it wasn't able to get over um but you know we'll see if it comes back but it's not about the fit act and it's not about click to cancel it's about what happens in your city in your state in your local government that really is gonna impact your business well one of the greatest ways to foster change is collaborating conversing and unifying as an industry so to round out the conversation obviously we've sprinkled throughout Chicago is coming up October 13th to 15th the Fitness Technology Summit you mentioned that it's invitation only so on a parting note you've dropped a couple great nuggets of things that are going to be announced very shortly which make the event exciting but talk to me a little bit about the highlight panels that you've put together so far and how people can learn more if they're aiming to attend yeah so first of all the theme of this year's event is around personalization and fitness we're gonna talk about AI of course we've got a great advisory panel uh CEO of Bay Club uh CMO of One Life Fitness CMO of uh EOS Fitness all on the on our panel CEO of Equinox Rick Harrow is gonna be our moderator um really excited for that panel we've got some amazing speakers our agenda's live if you go to WWW dot the Fitness Tech summit.com or go to the Fitness Technology Summit LinkedIn page we're making lots of announcements about our panels on our agenda um it's jam packed on day two we're we're we're gonna split up into breakout sessions that are sort of more curated and more specific in terms of the the content um so we're gonna have a a finance panel and what's really interesting is we still call it the Fitness Technology Summit but each year I think the lines of technology and other departments are getting blurrier and blurrier so we have more CFO's who've registered this year than ever we have more CMOS this year than CTO's in fact so um it's uh it's really exciting and a lot of great topics brilliant well I will make sure to include all of those links in the show notes as well Al Nasharwani I mean I know it's a busy life for you you're running the ship together with Tara Elta and your incredible team but on top of that working hard to put on events that bring people together foster conversation and ultimately foster the change of the industry so thank you so much for carving out the time and space today thanks so much Chrissy and thank you so much for all you do with the All Things Fitness and wellness and it's a great podcast I love to follow you've just listened to the All Things Fitness and wellness podcast hosted by Chrissy Van be sure to hit like and subscribe we have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry insiders and influencers together we're on a mission for everyone to live a life fit and well