Decoding AI: Nine facts about how firms use artificial intelligence in France

This study explores how French firms use artificial intelligence, leveraging a uniquely detailed and representative dataset with information on the use of specific AI technologies and how AI systems are deployed across different business functions within firms, in 2020 and 2022. The use of AI is still rare, amounting to 6% of firms, and varies by technology, with sectors often specialising in specific technologies and functions. While most firms specialise in a single AI technology applied to a single business function, larger firms adopt multiple technologies for different purposes. Firms adopting AI technologies are generally larger– except for those using natural language-related AI– and tend to be more digitally intensive, though firms leveraging NLG and autonomous movement AI deviate from this pattern. Firm size appears a relevant driver of AI use in business functions requiring integration with tangible processes, while digital capabilities appear particularly relevant for AI applications in business functions more related to intangible ones. AI technologies widely differ in terms of technological interdependencies and applicability, with machine learning for data analysis, automation and data-driven decision making-related AI technologies resulting as being at the core of the AI paradigm.