Question How should I do this?

Hi, I'm trying to get into VR developing, and I'm trying to do something basic to get started. Basically my goal is to have a football catch. I want to have someone run a route, and for me to throw the ball to them and have them catch it.

I have two issues: Should I use an AI or just an object as the other person, and how do I actually make them catch a ball?

First issue: Currently, I'm not using an AI: I just put a model of a person down, and put them into Bézier Path Creator, which makes it move along a certain path. Should I be using an AI? What's the difference between an "AI" and what I'm doing? Also, another mini-issue, but is there a way to make the player start and stop running the route at the push of a button?

Second issue: I haven't even gotten a start on having the player catch the ball, as I'm still working out how to do this. This was the part where I was wondering if I should use an AI, because I feel like that would be more flexible. My first idea for my current setup was detecting some sort of object collision, but I really don't know. Any ideas?