Why AI is not (yet) making France more productive
LIFT Policy Paper 2026-01 — September 2026
France spends as much as the United States on information technology (6.5% of GDP in 2025, compared with 6.8%), but its hourly productivity has stagnated since 2015: its lag stems from the return on this spending. Upstream, it is at the European average for research, patents and capital, but its computing power per capita is more than 50% below the European average. The French use generative AI individually at least as much as other Europeans, but their firms integrate it less: only 18% use it, compared with 26% in Germany, and integration remains shallow, concentrated in product development rather than in cross-cutting functions. This lag is above all organizational: 69% of French workers receive neither encouragement, nor tools, nor training in AI from their employer, compared with 44% in the United States.
ai, france, productivity
France spends as much as the United States on information technology (6.5% of GDP in 2025, compared with 6.8%), but its hourly productivity has stagnated since 2015: its lag stems from the return on this spending. Upstream, it is at the European average for research, patents and capital, but its computing power per capita is more than 50% below the European average. The French use generative AI individually at least as much as other Europeans, but their firms integrate it less: only 18% use it, compared with 26% in Germany, and integration remains shallow, concentrated in product development rather than in cross-cutting functions. This lag is above all organizational: 69% of French workers receive neither encouragement, nor tools, nor training in AI from their employer, compared with 44% in the United States.
PDF in French