Business confidence in digital technology: the Vivatech trade fair publishes a study

François Bitouzet. DR – DR

The VivaTech tech show publishes, in partnership with Wavestone and Opinion Way, a study on business leaders' trust in tech. Conducted at an international level, this study is decoded by François Bitouzet, director of VivaTech.

Leading French tech show (with 150,000 entries in Paris last year), VivaTech publishes, with the Opinion Way institute and the Wavestone firm, a study on the confidence of business leaders in tech. An international barometer, conducted on 1,000 business leaders in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, which shows that 86% (79% in France) of them have a "strong confidence in new technologies", particularly to grow their businesses.

"The VivaTech team commissioned this international study because we thought it would be interesting to see what the leaders of ;company had in mind regarding technology, presents the director of the show, François Bitouzet. For this, we have chosen companies which allow us to cover all sectors, from agri-food, to industry, including construction, with structures of different sizes."

Do business leaders have confidence in tech ?

The aim of this study was to "say at the start of 2024, what their perception, their expectations, perhaps also their hopes consist of and sometimes certain anxieties or vigilance these business leaders have regarding technology." This question allows us to see that almost all (99%) of business leaders of companies see the "benefits that new technologies bring", and nearly 2 out of three (65%) see in their structure "an increase in productivity following adoption" of the latter.

Among the preferred sectors of business leaders, we naturally see that artificial intelligence (AI) comes first among the investments planned by them (63%), ahead of cloud computing (49%) and cybersecurity (40%). This sector comes first in France among those which have the maximum impact on the competitiveness of businesses.

French business leaders are not "tech candid"

"What this figure means is that tech leaders remain optimistic, because the majority believe that tech can help with the resolution problems of this world, without being candid techies, explains François Bitouzet.Thus, this attitude demonstrates that they are aware of the issues, the opportunities and nevertheless, they say, yes, there are responsibilities that we will have to assume. Thus, 67% note the risks linked to privacy, while 75% focus on respect for ethics in technological progress."

Despite these risks, the report highlights that more than 7 out of 10 business leaders (72%) have a better opinion of the influence of new technologies than last year. A figure which shows the optimism of the latter regarding this sector. And should be updated from year to year, with new reports from VivaTech on this same subject.

"These results will allow us to provide somewhat specific insights from year to year", affirms François Bitouet, who nevertheless specifies that "each year we will continue to study in this report the possibility of following major trends around trust in tech from year to year, focusing in the years to come on particular points, depending on developments in technology."

Methodology:
This barometer was carried out between November 2023 and January 2024. It included a quantitative phase, carried out with a sample of 1,006 managers of private companies with 50 or more employees directly involved in decisions linked to the development of their company and interested in tech topics, including 322 interviews conducted in France, 258 in Germany, 250 in the United States and 176 in the United Kingdom from November 8 to 22, 2023. The sample was constituted according to the method of quotas and weighted according to the criteria
salary size, sector of activity and geographical location. A qualitative phase was then carried out, enriching and completing the statistical vision with +10 French and international business leaders.

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