The aim of this study was to develop a strategic framework for the application of artificial intelligence to enhance the research process in sport management and identify its implications based on stakeholder analysis. The study was applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of research approach. The research population consisted of experts in sport management, researchers familiar with AI technologies, and specialists in the field of research, who were selected for participation through semi-structured interviews. The interview data were analyzed using thematic content analysis with MAXQDA 2024 software. In addition, the Shannon entropy matrix was employed to prioritize and determine the relative importance of the extracted categories. The findings revealed a total of 288 initial codes with a cumulative frequency of 703, which were organized into 58 concepts and 16 main categories. Among the strategic categories, AI literacy of researchers and research data infrastructure accounted for the highest proportion of expert opinions (30.4%), indicating their paramount importance. These were followed, respectively, by the categories of AI ethics, intelligent decision-making, methodological innovation, intelligent knowledge production, intelligent data analysis, sports innovation ecosystem, smart research standards, and promotion of smart research. Furthermore, improving research quality and accelerating the research process received the highest importance coefficients among the identified outcomes. The findings indicate that the purposeful application of AI can play a significant role in enhancing the quality, efficiency, and innovation of sport management research by improving research data infrastructures, strengthening researchers' competencies, advancing analytical methodologies, and reinforcing data-driven decision-making systems. The development of researchers' AI literacy, the establishment of standardized research databases, the formulation of ethical frameworks, and the expansion of the sports innovation ecosystem are among the most critical prerequisites for the effective integration of AI into the sport management research system.