Following the AI Action Summit held in Paris earlier this week, Visionaries Unplugged brought together speakers such as Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, and Clara Chappaz, French Minister for AI and Digitial to discuss the state of the tech ecosystem. Join us as we recap some of the most interesting sessions from the event.

Looking Ahead with GPT

Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, spoke about his vision for the future of technology, saying that he thinks, in the next 12 months, "software engineering, for example, is a place where we're going to see systems that are really going to feel generally intelligent, eventually they're going to feel kind of superhuman."

Despite concerns about AI, he remains optimistic that developments like this will be a net positive. Historically, every wave of technological innovation has always changed the mix of jobs in society, and he believes that AI will follow.

He also maintains that people will always stand out from technology on a level of empathy, humor, love, "and all of those things that intrigue us in our personal lives." Being that these values inform how we act and engage with each other and the world around us, he says that he doubts an AI system could ever really replace that.

"Humans still have a real desire to build things, to contribute things, to create things," he says, and that people will always go on following those instincts.

To wrap up this session, Lightcap stressed the importance of infrastructure in order to shape the future. In discussion about the U.S and French governments making financial commitments to AI, he said that he believes that "infrastructure is destiny in some sense here."

From Fragmentation to Domination

Hanno Renner, Co-founder and CEO of Personio, and Eleonore Crespo, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Pigment, led a session on building global SaaS leaders in Europe. They spoke about the issue of companies being created in Europe but then leaving as they start to grow, insisting that there has never been a better time to build a SaaS company in Europe.

Hanno highlighted the benefits of operating a company across European borders, explaining that companies "really need to understand those local markets, and I think that really prepares you for building a global, multi country company much more than if you want to homogeneous market where everything is the same," like the U.S, for example.

In terms of talent, Eleonore described the U.S as "a more liquid market," where people stay only 2-3 years at a job before moving on. She sees this as a negative thing for most companies, especially when they are trying to realize a ten- or twenty-year vision. "To give you an idea, for instance, at Pigment, our engineering team. Since the beginning of Pigment, the company is six years old, only two engineers left."

For all companies, regardless of location, Hanno highlighted the importance of financial backing, saying that " if you pick the right investors, they want to be part of your journey, they want to support you, but they let you decide what's right for the business and where we continue to be headquartered." Eleonore also touched on the advantages of remaining independent with private capital "because this is the only way to be able to innovate at your own pace."

Regulation & the European Identity

Clara Chappaz, French Minister for AI and Digital, led a session about regulation, AI, and innovation in the context of Europe.

Although Europe tends to receive some criticism for "over-regulation", especially regarding technology and AI, Chappaz explained how this might be a good thing. She insists that regulation is "aligned with who we are as Europeans" and that it could be a competitive advantage for companies. "So, if done well, it means that French, German, whatever, Europe, Italians, Spanish, you name it, company in Europe will have the same regulation expanding to all 27 countries and that's a huge competitive advantage."

She also touched on other European strengths, like having more scientists working on AI than anywhere else in the world. "And as a European, we prefer to be very humble, sometimes a little bit negative, but we have everything we need. We have talents, we have energy, we have financing."

Growth & The Global State

Later in the evening, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-In-Chief of The Economist, shared some of her insights and perspective on The Global State of Play & Navigating 2025.

She discussed the importance of Europeans being more than passengers in the global state, expressing that Europe, and the world in general, might be "sleepwalking into something catastrophic."

Because of how comfortable life can be, especially in Western countries, people often turn their nose at the notion of growth because they don't see any further reason for it. She discussed the danger of this mindset, highlighting the fact that there are still places around the world that need innovation to improve people's lives.

She ended the session, urging people across Europe not to forget the importance of growth for the global state and not to get too comfortable as to become a passenger.

The Conversation Isn't Over

We'll continue the discussion about AI and its development at VivaTech 2025.