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As Europe races to establish itself in the global artificial intelligence landscape, France is preparing to showcase its AI ecosystem's strengths at an upcoming business-focused event that aims to bridge the gap between startups, corporations, and investors.
The AI Action Summit's Business Day, organized on February 11th by France Digitale, will bring together CTOs, engineers, startups, and corporate leaders to explore practical applications of AI across various industries. Maya Noël, CEO of France Digitale, explained that while the event builds on its eight-year tradition of facilitating business meetings between startups and investors, this year's summit has expanded its scope significantly.
"The idea is to make people understand the use of AI and not just talking about what are the models, what is the value chain, but very concrete stuff to inspire a lot of companies to use more AI in their business," Noël said.
The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit is scheduled to take place on February 10 and 11, 2025, at the Grand Palais in Paris. Co-chaired by France and India, the summit aims to collectively establish scientific foundations, solutions, and standards for more sustainable AI that serves the public interest. The summit will focus on five strategic themes: Public Interest AI, the Future of Work, Innovation and Culture, Trust in AI, and Global AI Governance.
The Summit will draw heads of state, leaders of international organizations, researchers, and artists to discuss and debate policy. But there will also be many business leaders in attendance, and so organizers wanted a more focused event for them. They turned to France Digitale to pull together such an event at Station F.
"At the very beginning, what we wanted to do as France Digitale is to do the same event we do every year... a moment where CTOs, engineers, startups, and investors in AI could meet with corporates," Noël said. "But then we were approached by several counterparts saying that maybe we need a big day around what we can do with AI in terms of business."
The Business Day's agenda reflects this broader vision, featuring economic conferences on the main stage examining AI business models and sustainability. Parallel tracks will spotlight specific industry applications, with a particular focus on sectors like healthcare.
A key component of the event will be matchmaking sessions connecting startups with both French and international VCs in the morning, followed by corporate matchmaking in the afternoon. The format is designed to create tangible business opportunities for the ecosystem.
Noël acknowledges that European companies, particularly in France, have historically been slower to adopt new technologies compared to their American counterparts. She points to cloud computing adoption as an example, noting that even major French banks lag behind their UK peers in implementation.
However, she sees the widespread interest in ChatGPT as potentially catalyzing faster digital transformation. "Thanks to all the things we're talking about, ChatGPT and so on... there is a quick adoption, for sure. We can see that there is, today, a lot of people already using, or at least trying to use it," she said.
Beyond the immediate buzz around generative AI, Noël stressed the importance of highlighting the broader French and European AI ecosystem: "In all the conversations we had this week around ChatGPT and the fact that maybe Europe is not even in the race - I do think that we have a lot of companies in the race, but we have to help them to grow and get bigger."
She points to recent European Union proposals for market unification as positive developments but argues they need to be coupled with stronger industrial policy and investment. "Creating the single market is good... Besides that, we also have to create strong European policies around industry, and we need to invest in it," she said.
The challenge of scaling European AI companies is compounded by capital markets issues. Noël identified several key barriers: insufficient liquidity in European markets, a shortage of tech analysts, and the need for companies to reach sufficient scale before considering public listings.
"We need to fill the gap between the companies that we have today and those with good IPO potential," she explained. "We need to invest more in growth. We need to have more M&A between startups around Europe to make bigger companies that are able to go public."
Despite these challenges, Noël remains optimistic about the European AI ecosystem's potential. She emphasized that while it's important to acknowledge the advantages enjoyed by U.S. competitors, including greater funding and established cloud infrastructure, European companies need to focus on sustainable growth and efficient development of their technologies.
The Business Day event reflects this practical approach, bringing together international speakers, French innovators, and corporate leaders to showcase actual AI implementations across various sectors. "This is not only displaying what France is capable of but really to just to make people aware what's going on in AI and all the use cases that exist today," Noël said
As the global AI landscape continues to evolve rapidly, Noël sees events like Business Day as crucial platforms for driving adoption and growth: "I think this is just the beginning of it. There are going to be a lot of events in Europe... but I think it's good for this year, especially in France, to really focus on the business.
"Today, companies need to grow," Noël said. "That's the first thing we need to understand... The most important thing is to be efficient, to also think about the sustainability of this technology and the good use of it."
