Europe needs to think big when it comes to harnessing AI and GenAI, writes Matthieu Courtecuisse, founder and CEO of the global consultancy firm Sia Partners.
Mates, friends, agents…a multitude of names serving the same ambition: deploying generative AI in every daily activity, like an agent managing schedules, everyday expenses or travel.
Make no mistake: the coming revolution is far from being a fad invented by consultants seeking sensational innovation. It is an acceleration built on a few new technological building blocks, particularly a capability to compress human knowledge, directly accessible through just a few prompts.
“If we want a European Big Tech, we must fund it, and we’re talking about hundreds of billions per year”
GenAI, made accessible to everyone through modern interfaces, will fully benefit from the latest generations of GPUs (graphics processors). The principle is simple: agents are capable of managing defined processes end-to-end, including trade-offs between different tasks and planning.
Human-like intelligence
This is made possible by unlimited memory within a given process and improvements in language models. These agents will naturally interact with us or with other agents, consistently pushing the boundaries of their ability to embody a form of human-like intelligence, performing increasingly long and complex tasks.
Within two to three years, according to experts in the field, those of us who are the most digitised will rely on 20 to 30 GenAI agents just in our personal lives. For businesses, the volume effect of these agents will be combinatorial, and it will be necessary to orchestrate their coherence without restricting their autonomy.
For example, a pharmaceutical company might develop a series of agents to manage the travel of medical representatives, reducing costs by 40% to 50% while increasing commercial impact. These agents will integrate with those developed directly by the medical representative, managing certain preferences, constraints or dashboards.
Strategic investments
There is an urgent need to invest. Only companies with a data-driven strategy – particularly those with their own “GPT” like infrastructure – will be able to reap tangible benefits.
“Rather than fearing job losses, the real risk will be for companies that fail to adopt agents, as they may disappear in favour of those that embrace them”
This ecosystem will be complemented by agent-based architectures and “agent stores,” combined with custom agents that individuals can develop to meet their specific needs, as easily as creating Excel spreadsheets, thanks to “no-code” platforms.
What lies ahead is the true democratisation of prompting and significant decentralisation of AI, both made possible by the now limitless nature of exchanges.
This hybridisation between man and machine, supported by an amplified automation, will generate productivity gains, beginning with three to four hours weekly on domestic or tedious tasks, and later by enabling profound team reorganizations within truly proactive companies.
Rather than fearing job losses, the real risk will be for companies that fail to adopt agents, as they may disappear in favour of those that embrace them.
Regulating AI
This acceleration is a double-edged sword for Europe, carrying the risk of complete erasure in terms of technological relevance and wealth creation. Two key points must be addressed unequivocally.
We must first confront the issue that is gnawing away at us, between regulation and innovation, by sending clear signals. Let’s impose a moratorium at the EU level on the GDPR, a framework that has been completely surpassed by the new generations of technology, and suspend the rollout of the AI Act to better revise it in 2025.
There would be no vacuum, as the goal would be to allow the contractual relationship between businesses and their customers to thrive within the current legal framework. Let’s move beyond the regulatory paradigm of the 2010s and focus on end-use cases, rather than underlying technologies or data.
It is also possible to subtly bet on open source, and more generally, on aggressive policy regarding scientific publications. Without this, European businesses will have restricted or delayed access to American technologies and will make digital investments in the United States or India.
This regulatory inflation, outdated on a technical level, is neither demanded by citizens nor businesses. On the contrary, in some months, European authorities will realise that Europeans will be engaging in “tech tourism” to purchase their iPhones or tablets, in order to access those famous agents.
Then, we must return to basic economic principles.
Every disruptive technology needs venture capital, pioneering customers and competitive costs (particularly in terms of electricity) to thrive.
If we want a European Big Tech, we must fund it, and we’re talking about hundreds of billions per year. This is a significant amount, even for the EU. Everything must be mobilised – savings, pension funds, taxation, and the ability to build data centers powered by decarbonised and competitive energy.
Instead of an AI Act, let’s create an AI Investment Act. Simultaneously, we must encourage European companies to invest in AI and these new agents through tax credits and greater organisational flexibility.
Let’s seize the opportunity to create a European Big Tech at a time when the software world (ERP, SaaS) is being reinvented by the AI agent revolution that is set to begin in 2025.
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