2024-02-13 08:05:02
The European Commission has ambitious plans for the digital transformation of businesses. Its program for the Digital Decade aims to make Europe a digital leader by 2030. In France as in other European countries, the objective is for 75% of companies to use AI by 2030.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) shares this vision and commissioned independent consultancy Strand Partners to carry out a new study to understand the role that cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) can play in realizing the company’s digital ambitions. Europe.
This study shows that digital transformation in Europe and France is well underway and that companies are on track to achieve the objectives of the Digital Decade, if they manage to maintain the acceleration in the adoption of technologies and in particular of ‘AI.
2023: the year of Artificial Intelligence
A third of European businesses have adopted AI, a growth rate of 32% since last year. In France, the number of companies having adopted AI increased by 35% between 2022 and 2023, going from 20% to 27%. Additionally, 68% of companies adopting AI use a large language model (LLM) or generative AI.
If France maintains the pace of adoption of artificial intelligence, this might bring 99 billion euros of additional gross value added (GVA) to the French economy by 2030. This forecast is in addition to that of 2022 , which reported 490 billion euros generated by the adoption of digital technologies such as cloud computing or AI. In total, digital adoption might add 589 billion euros to French GDP between 2020 and 2030, the period corresponding to the European Commission’s Digital Decade. In Europe, 3.4 trillion euros might be added to the European economy by 2030. This is an increase of 600 billion euros compared to last year’s forecast, based largely on the increased adoption of AI.
The positive economic impact of AI on European businesses is clear: three quarters of businesses using AI report an increase in revenue and productivity. For French companies that have already integrated AI technologies, 91% increased their efficiency, 73% saved costs and 71% streamlined their business processes.
However, the use of AI and other digital technologies is disparate depending on the size of the companies: AI is currently favored by large companies (51%) compared to 31% for SMEs. Small and Medium Businesses report significant obstacles to its adoption, whether it is recruiting the right profiles, regulatory concerns or even the cost of implementing AI.
Beyond AI, French companies have significantly increased their investments in digital technology over the past year, by around 50%. This technological boom is based in particular on the expansion of cloud computing, an essential infrastructure for artificial intelligence solutions. Thus, 51% of French companies believe that the cloud has become more important since September 2022.
AI is generating growing enthusiasm among French businesses and citizens
If 2023 marked an acceleration in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), 2024 should continue this momentum, driven by widespread enthusiasm around the benefits of this technology.
65% of French companies believe that AI will transform their respective sectors within 5 years, and 83% consider that digital technology as a whole is essential or at least important to achieve their 5-year growth objectives. Spending on technology is expected to increase by 51% by September 2024, underscoring French companies’ commitment to a digital future. This trend is not specific to France and reflects European averages.
French citizens also have confidence in the transformative power of AI. Nearly half of the adult population in France expects AI to have a tangible impact on their lives over the next three years. Some sectors stand out for their potential for change thanks to new AI technologies: healthcare, education and transport, with 64%, 63% and 61% of citizens respectively suggesting that AI is likely to revolutionize these areas in the years to come. More than half of citizens (52%) also see AI as an essential tool for tackling key societal challenges, including climate change and disease prevention.
The growth levels of AI adoption over the past year in France and across Europe are encouraging. However, a certain number of obstacles risk slowing down this positive trajectory and must be overcome. The report suggests that to unlock the full potential of AI, countries in Europe must tackle three crucial issues: creating an enabling environment for innovation, closing the digital skills gap in Europe and ensuring that businesses of all sizes have access to the latest technologies.
“France finds itself at the dawn of an unprecedented opportunity. Companies are realizing the benefits of artificial intelligence for their growth and productivity. It is crucial to remove the obstacles that are holding back their digital transformation. To free everything the potential of AI, it is important that France offers the necessary support in terms of digital skills and establishes a framework conducive to the ambitions of companies of all sizes.”, declares Julien Groues, Managing Director of AWS France.
Digital skills to develop
Although French companies recognize the potential of digital, there is a significant gap between their digital aspirations and the actual digital skills of their employees. Only 19% of companies are able to easily recruit employees with the digital skills they are looking for. In addition, 51% lament that basic digital skills, such as sending emails or editing documents, are those that their company lacks the most. However, 67% of companies believe that digital skills will become more decisive than diplomas when recruiting in the next 5 years.
On the employee side, training is clearly insufficient: only 13% of French citizens follow formal training to acquire new digital skills. The main obstacles are the high cost of training, lack of time and lack of awareness of existing possibilities.
Close collaboration between public authorities and businesses appears essential to fill this glaring digital skills gap in France.
AWS offers numerous educational, training and certification programs to help French people develop their digital skills and use cloud technologies. AWS has trained more than 900,000 people in the EU, and more than 200,000 people in France, in cloud skills since 2017. This figure includes both free and paid training. AWS is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people by 2025, and has already trained more than 21 million people. Amazon also launched its programme “AI Ready” aiming to provide two million more people worldwide with free AI training by 2025.
Conclusion
This study shows that France has real potential to achieve the European Commission’s objectives on the adoption of AI by 2030, if French companies continue to adopt these technologies at a sustained pace. French companies and French citizens have the ambition to seize the potential offered by new technologies. Companies also clearly recognize the importance of investing in these technologies to reap concrete benefits.
The challenge is to ensure that the digital skills gap does not hinder France’s ability to realize its full potential. This study presents a number of recommendations to overcome these barriers to economic growth through digital transformation, and empower businesses to recognize the vast transformative potential promised by AI.
To read the full report and find out how 2023 became the year of AI adoption:
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