As the International Summit on Artificial Intelligence ends in France, the widespread adoption of generative AI by businesses is generating countless debates (and its share of fantasies). Swift progress in this area is no longer limited to tech and service leaders but is impacting all companies and global trade. From processes to products, what are the opportunities and risks of implementing AI for the manufacturing sector and credit management?
Growth, productivity, competitiveness: macro-micro, same fight!
From the perspective of a company or on a national scale, the issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence can vary widely. Nevertheless, three major issues apply at both the macro and microeconomic levels: growth, productivity and competitiveness. After the phase of wonder and experimentation, the ‘generative AI bubble’ is now moving on to the stage of productive uses of this technology, on a large scale and integrated into viable economic models.
Among the emerging challenges, the rush for competitiveness will de facto generate imbalances between nations and companies. And a crucial shift: while players may make mistakes, they will not all recover at the same pace from a mistake in this area.
The ones who will master AI will benefit from productivity gains and a strategic advantage. However, the challenge is to balance the ratio between power and responsibility: AI is a lever for growth and a source of productivity, but also a vector for ethical, social, environmental and geopolitical risks.
The acculturation of decision-makers is also decisive for companies. Especially since AI is still a moving matter, as we saw recently with DeepSeek, which turned many beliefs perceived as immutable truths upside down.
Aurélien Duthoit, ICT sector economist, Coface.
Are all companies playing in the same league?
While AI is a technological revolution with the particularity of affecting all companies, at all levels, its adoption is occurring in a context of sovereignty, investment policy, and market share dominated by American and Chinese companies on the world stage. American companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Oracle and Apple are in the lead, with more than 160 billion dollars invested in 2024, mainly in the construction of data centres to train their AI models, and nearly 500 billion announced by Donald Trump as part of the Stargate project. Some Chinese companies such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, whose total investments amount to 15 billion dollars, are doing well. In Europe, on the other hand, it is difficult to identify even a single company that has made investments of this magnitude.
The pace of AI adoption is very unequal between sectors but also within the same sector. It depends on regulatory factors, the degree of data maturity and available resources.
Technology-oriented sectors benefit from a favourable regulatory environment, large volumes of structured data and significant IT resources. But it also benefits certain sectors such as trade or industry, which are already very committed to the digitisation of their businesses. In this respect, AI is by no means an issue limited to tech companies!
Carine Pichon, CEO of Coface France, Western Europe and Africa.
AI integrated into client solutions and commercial risk management
Although the AI topic is not new, it has regained exposure with the development of generative AI and its use modes that are more accessible to the wider public. Within companies, a horizontal development can also be noted: first tested on a few functions (IT, risks), AI has gradually spread to other areas (HR, finance) with an exponential growth in usage.
In this context, the issue of use cases is at the top of decision-makers' concerns: how can AI be integrated, adopted and adapted to my company's activities? What concrete benefits can it bring to clients? How can AI improve the assessment of commercial risks?
Two global leaders share their experiences and innovative strategies in this area:
- Schneider Electric, world leader in industrial technology, which has embraced AI for the benefit of its clients. . . as well as its credit risk management!
- Sonepar, world leader in the distribution of electrical equipment to professionals, which uses AI to offer an omnichannel experience and a tailor-made value proposition to its clients.
Explore all the challenges, risks and opportunities ofArtificial Intelligence, a real industrial turning point? alongside our experts by watching the replay of the Coface Country Risk Conference 2025.
