AI: Catalyst for an Entrepreneurial Revolution in France

AI: A Hope for Social Mobility

Artificial intelligence (AI) could play a crucial role in redefining entrepreneurship in France by making capabilities once reserved for the most privileged profiles accessible to all. By automating operational tasks, AI paves the way for a new generation of entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, thereby revitalizing social mobility.

Currently, debates on sovereignty focus on aspects such as energy, defense, and technology. However, one often-overlooked aspect is daily economic sovereignty, which concerns small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), artisans, and freelancers. These players represent 99.9% of French businesses, employ nearly half of private sector employees, and generate more than a third of national added value, according to INSEE in 2024. Despite their importance, they have often been ignored by the tech industry for the past two decades.

Entrepreneurship: A Meritocratic Myth

Starting a business is often seen as the last bastion of social mobility, with the idea that anyone with a good idea and determination can succeed. Yet, data reveals a different reality. In France, 73% of startup founders come from upper classes, with at least one parent being an executive or self-employed, according to a 2019 study. These entrepreneurs benefit from a triple advantage: education, capital, and networks.

Founding teams that include graduates from prestigious schools like HEC, Polytechnique, Centrale, ESCP, or ESSEC raise on average three times more funding than others, according to a 2023 report. In priority neighborhoods, entrepreneurs start with an initial capital of €27,900, well below the national average of €44,500. However, their businesses have a higher survival rate, with 77% still active after three years, compared to 74% elsewhere in the country.

This phenomenon is not a matter of chance but the result of structural bias. We finance those who resemble those who fund, and we build for those who resemble those who build. Meanwhile, a billion non-technical operators—traders, artisans, SME managers, and freelancers—keep the real economy running with tools designed for profiles they do not match.

From Division to Economic Opportunity

In 2024, only 9% of French companies with fewer than 50 employees use at least one AI technology, compared to 33% of large companies, according to INSEE. This gap is not narrowing; it is widening, and its economic consequence is already visible: companies using AI now account for 49% of the total revenue of the French economy. This is not merely a technological lag but an economic divide that is solidifying.

However, an inverse dynamic is beginning to emerge. Take the example of a self-employed plumber, working alone, without an assistant, without a financial director, and without a sales team. Currently, he spends two to three hours a day on administrative tasks such as drafting quotes, follow-ups, scheduling, and responding to requests. These hours are not billable. A properly configured AI agent can handle nearly all of these tasks without requiring technical training, all from a simple phone. This is not science fiction, but already a reality for thousands of entrepreneurs in forty countries.

Beyond productivity gains, it is the barrier to entry that is changing. AI does not eliminate existing inequalities, but it circumvents some that previously seemed insurmountable by replacing what once required human capital, time, or connections with software.

For the first time, someone who lacks the network or initial investment necessary for a Parisian entrepreneur can manage all their operations from their phone, using tools that were, five years ago, reserved solely for companies with an information systems department.

A Strategic Choice for the Future

France has a tradition of debate on protection. This debate is legitimate, but it cannot be the only framework considered for AI. There is another aspect: the capacity for action. It is not about protecting a system that is running out of steam, but about equipping those whom this system has always left behind.

The real issue of economic sovereignty is not how to protect our existing businesses from AI, but how to use AI to bring forth those that the current system would never have allowed to emerge. The answer will not come from a plan but will be built entrepreneur by entrepreneur, in the back office of a merchant in Clermont-Ferrand, in the workshop of an artisan in Roubaix, in the van of an electrician in Val-de-Marne. These are people who have always known how to start a business and who, for the first time, have the tools to truly do so.