The meeting, like any other territory, must find his place and have his say on the planet IA, which seems to turn faster and faster and run many heads. Hence the importance of having skills and resources in AI on the island, Without having to go get elsewhere. We asked Anaïs SERY, general director of Digital Réunion, the Reunion association of digital professionals, Co -founder of the Artificial Intelligence Association Reunion, to identify the contours, the ins and outs of this planet IA as it really presents itself today, in particular by connecting its global and local issues. At a distance from the fantastic or metaphysical dimension that the debate on AI takes, And without ignoring it, The immediate goal is to make AI of "allies" of the human, pleads anaïs sery, companies, but also employees(e)s, to take the right measure of the tool, to understand how it works and see the possible concrete applications in their activities. The "small" AI are to be created on the scale of the needs of the territory. This first step can be accompanied by experienced professionals. The Reunionese digital ecosystem is mobilizing so as not to miss this new turning point in human history rich in potential, but also dangers.
Véronique Torner, president of Numeum.
Meeting Leader : You were in Paris during the World Summit for Action on AI, around which several events were organized. Have you felt like a historic moment ?
Anaïs Sery : You had to be there, that's for sure. People from all walks of life were gathered in Paris : American, South American, Indian, etc. We were not so numerous that there were less than 4,200 people at Station F -, But to be able to meet people from all over the planet, discuss them, Understand the challenges of AI to such and such a place in the world, It was very enriching. The Reunionese delegation was able to follow the ten days of this world sequence. We had time to take the pulse of all these events, to confront several feedback that sometimes concord, sometimes contradicts. Furthermore, Very important announcements for the French ecosystem, and for Europe, were made. SO, in my opinion, oui, You had to be there.
What was the program of the Reunion delegation ?
The Tour de France de l'Ia, Organized by MEDEF and NUMEUM*, had been opened on October 30 in Reunion : We closed it on February 4 in Paris. During a very small committee meeting, Reunion entrepreneurs were able to interact with Luc Julia, Franco-American engineer and computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence, that we welcomed in the meeting in December **. He told them about his vision and his expertise on subjects which concerned them directly. February 7, We participated in Ai France Summit de Numeum. A day essentially devoted to practical uses of AI. How it transforms the way of doing accounting, to manage human resources, Customer relations with Voice Bots, etc. It was very intense.
With artificial intelligences that develop at high speed, Are we not going for good in cybernetic society anticipated by science fiction authors ?
We have this feeling of high speed because we talk a lot about AI since the release of Chatgpt, November 30, 2022. It is true that there is a lot of progress in the field of AI, Because there are a large number of available capital that helps push research in many directions and develop tools. But there are also a lot of announcements, who feed this euphoria. Graduate are made in research, But things will not appear overnight. These are years of research that can materialize. As for cybernetic society, Maybe we are already there, Without having concience. Algorithms already run a large part of our lives. Awareness is being occurred, Accompanied by the fear of seeing AI touching the intellectual, The work of the Spirit, that is to say something that humans thought they were the only one who can master and duplicate. It upsets us, Because we have never experienced so many paradigm changes in such a short time with a single technology.
Generative AI are often questioned by uninitiated as if they were people. Is it a form of naivety ?
It is a form of ignorance of the way the AI operates. These are statistical models, Especially for LLM, les large language models, de type ChatGPT. These are also statistical models that generate images. There is no intelligence comparable to human intelligence behind, There are only mathematics. This ignorance means that one can be amazed by AI and one can also attach to them. There are already cases and there will certainly be others, No doubt more when the combination of robotics and AI will be accomplished : People will get attached to robots. More, to feel, You need a body, And the AIs don't have it.
digital, Co -founder of the association
Artificial Intelligence Reunion
Invited at the end of last year by Digital Reunion to express itself on AI, Luc Julia had preferred to speak of "increased" intelligence rather than artificial. Is this the right definition ?
When the term artificial intelligence was created in 1956, Intelligency was taken in the sense of information, like in Cia. This is why Luc Julia insists on saying and telling that there is no intelligence in AI. To Digital Réunion, We join him completely in his desire to explain that the AI will not replace us, But will "increase" us, in the sense that it will allow us to work more quickly and above all more qualitatively. This notion of the qualitative allowed by the AI is becoming decisive. L'IA, It's not just a matter of speed, productivity in the pure sense. I think talking about augmented human, increased worker, oui, This is the right definition.
At the base, You are a marketing expert. What are you passionate about in AI and prompted you to train you to his knowledge ?
AI can be applied in a lot of areas. In marketing, which is the knowledge of the customer, The SA Psychology, of his expectations, It has been used for several years. Before the arrival of Chatgpt, There were already models of large GPT type language, with algorithms dealing with data. Processing tool, AI then switched to intellectual professions, towards help with design. See the vast field of knowledge that artififil intelligence opens before us, I find it fascinating. Its exploratory field is immense.
The Association Artificial Reunion Intelligence, that you founded with Johan Equixor, was created in July 2023. What was the genesis of this association, What are his goals today, And who composes it ?
Johan and I were both passionate about AI. We wondered if other people did not share this passion, who could join us in an associative approach. The other reason, This was the observation of the considerable number of false or erroneous things conveyed on the AI. In the missions of the association, We have set ia demystification. We have made many conferences on this subject, To explain what IA is and what it is not, How to use your tools well, but also warn of their limits and dangers : What to be careful when using AI, insofar as these are data that is provided. We wanted to send these messages to. We were very in demand, And we are still a lot. Nothing delights us more than seeing people later entrust to us that they now use AI when they were afraid of it. It is a great satisfaction for us to have done this work that affected thousands of people and businesses.
The world race at AI seems to be led by the two main rivals that are the United States and China. L’Europe, and France in particular, Are they really lagging behind and being exceeded ?
Yes, in part. In Europe, We made the choice to start by regulating. The negotiations of the European AI Act began in 2021. Three years later, We have a text that no longer sticks to current technologies, Like the large Language Models or the generation of images, nor to the questions they ask about intellectual property and all the law around. Result : This European regulation scares entrepreneurs and it is probably obsolete. We must also think of the considerable means that should be implemented to prove that companies do not respect the law. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't regulate. On the contrary, regulation is necessary. The GDPR gives the example of what to do : She was a pioneer in Europe before inspiring other countries, such as the United States. It is therefore necessary to quickly update this regulation on the AI and find the happy medium to secure data without lurking innovation and entrepreneurship. And to answer your question : are we being exceeded ? Maybe. Will the 109 billion euros announced by France and the 200 billion announced by the European Union be sufficient ? I hope so. But it's not just a matter of money and regulation. Come into play the materials and infrastructure to run all this : les data centers, Electronic chips. Who makes them, And we have enough ? Do we have the necessary quality databases ? Do we have the competent people who want to work in Europe because wages are attractive to it and the interesting entrepreneurship model ?
What is the challenge of sovereignty in mastery of AI ?
When we talk about AI, We often forget to talk about two other things. On the date : how I collect it and where it transits. This is the issue of New Space, which is above our heads with Starlink satellites massively deployed by Elon Musk for several years. Currently, A limited percentage of the data passed through Starlink. But is this data secure or duplicated by Starlink ? We don't know. There is therefore a real geopolitical issue in controlling data, of AI and its infrastructure. If Europe wishes to catch up at this level also by deploying its own network of satellites, It is to ensure its sovereignty on the bandwidth. China is also deploying its own constellation satellites. This is a question of circularity between data, infrastructure, transmission networks and the last link : l’, which generates new data that will feed the infrastructure, etc.
How are the AIs fueled into data ?
We generate a lot of data via our various and varied phones and cards. Data is also generated and collected through our web research, Of everything we publish on social networks, etc. A human being represents 30 million data contact points per year, It is much more data than we are aware of it ! These 30 million data on us, GAFAMs are not content to possess them. These are also data that sells and resell, often without our consent. Data feeds a large business.
Can we speak of "business" as we talk about "business application" ?
I do not know this term "business". From the moment you have scanned data in sufficient quantity, one can imagine an AI to treat it. I take the example of accountant, which sees not only its accounting entry practices upset by AI, But his relationship with companies change in nature. A marketing, We have this type of data approach, And that is increasingly incredibly. We also see a lot of business management software that evolves by integrating AI, facilitating and accelerating work. We see appearing what are called agents IA, AI agents. Rather than prompt and type on the computer, We configure AI that communicate with each other. AI A will look for information on the Internet, transmit it to AI B, who sums it up and transmits it to AI C for publication, On a LinkedIn page for example. In this process of interaction between AI, humans are content to validate the end result.
Do resources exist locally to design artificial intelligences adapted to the needs of local businesses, And is there a request in this area ?
Yes, There is demand and resource. Duke is an example : cet assistant intelligent, which manages and facilitates access to all data in the company, was designed in Reunion. An area where we see a high demand for innovation, It's health. Or, We have Lucidia in Reunion, which has designed an AI application for the medico-economic management of health establishments. This start-up was part of the Reunion delegation who came to Paris for the AI summit. But you have to understand that these start-ups are certainly aimed at the Reunion market, but also in French and European markets. Reunion is a superb laboratory to develop, Test and have quick feedback on innovation, But the stake is always, After, to go to the hexagonal scale, European, See more ideally. There are also locally found companies initially specialized in the treatment of data that are changing in the generation of AI to be implemented in companies : The good AI, in the right size and in the right place. There are locally all the resources and skills necessary to support companies from A to Z in the implementation of AI.
The transvertable initiations proposed by Digital Réunion on digital uses, that you animate, have already been followed by more than 300 companies. What is the program ?
First there is the demystification work that I was talking about earlier. We then see in participants the desire to understand what can be the IA strategy that could be implemented in the company. Because integrating an AI requires a strategy, and the stragégie to follow for the company is not the same as that for the company Z. The starting point, This is an assessment of data : What type and what amount of data has the company, and what note she corresponds. The notation of the data goes from a five -star star. Five stars, it's the top, This means that there is enough data to train AI models. A star, The lowest level, means that the data is not even scanned : It will therefore be necessary first to scan them in order to make them readable by the computer tool, Then group them, classify them, etc. The demand on AI and how to integrate them into the activity will grow. This will be the issue of my next transfers : How to think about an AI strategy in your business.
"Scams to the President", with deceptive images generated by generative, occurred in Reunion. Can we protect ourselves against this type of act when AI seems to erase the border of the real and the false ?
In cybersecurity, The weakest link, It's always the human. The scam to the president is an illustration among others. If his means were not as sophisticated as they are today with AI, The president's scam has existed for a very long time. "I only believe what I see", said Saint Thomas : It is no longer possible in 2025. We are in a society where we can no longer believe without reservation that we see and what we hear, where view and hearing can be amazed, where you have to be ready to ask if what we see or hear could be generated by IA. I may not have the answer, But it will awaken my critical mind. With or without AI, Cybersecurity is a race, A cat and mouse game. AI requires us to redouble their efforts, of critical and vigilance.
What to respond to those who first see in AI job cuts ?
I fully understand their concerns. We have been warned for several decades that, in the future, We will be replaced by robots. NOW, We talk about AI. Non, The risk of employment is not to be replaced by AI, But by people who will use AI. Also I invite those who are afraid of job cuts to use these tools to understand how they work and their limits. I advocate the test of this tool and perseverance in its use, to be able to forge your own opinion rather than freezing immediately and helping to act. The goal is to make allies AI. Human has an added value which is undeniable and is not about to be replaced by AI. The best proof : When chatgpt came out, Large expert cabinets warned us that six months later no one would have a work. Two years have passed : We are generally still all our jobs.
Does AI offer opportunities for the emancipation of women ?
For the emancipation of women and men. The opportunity, It’s already to learn to train. With work, dependent children, We don't necessarily have time to train. There are tools with AI that facilitate learning. I take the example of languages, Instant translations of a language in French. Emancipation also involves the need for skills in existing trades, emerging or that do not yet exist and which are to be created. The demand for these new professions is increasing. Take the example of IA Knowledge Management. Today, very few people do it. AI can apply to many areas, By coupling your know-how with AI, There is a good chance that you are among the first or first to do it. You see the opportunity ? This is called being on a blue ocean, where very few people still sail. I have knowledge, I will look for an AI to improve my work, gain in quality, efficient, in time : I evolve my job. In my opinion, Such an approach is part of emancipation, women and anyone. This is how new knowledge and new trades will create.
Promoting the knowledge and use of AI is not the only mission of Digital Réunion. The association has changed governance. She now has two presidents and you have been taking care of it since April 2024. Should we speak of a rebirth of Digital Réunion ?
I am here for this rebirth. I participate in the impulse given back to the association to settle what can be and recreate a dynamic, cohesion, with our members and our partners. This renaissance requires a lot of energy. She is in progress and I am delighted with what is happening. The Phoenix is reborn from its ashes. Mon ambition, This is that this phoenix, To use this metaphor, May stand on its own wings without needing me. Recreate a team, work on many subjects. It’s a difficult challenge, Intense and exciting. It makes me grow. I took ten years of experience in one year !
The message of the digital transformation of companies comes up against obstacles ?
L’obstacle principal, which is completely normal, It is resistance to change. Change energy and scare : We know where we come from, But not where we are going. What I see among participants in the transmitum program, It’s a strong conscience that you have to go. I am for a gentle change support, I advocate the small steps. No question of saying that we erase everything. In my tutoring, There are no good or bad grades. The goal is to convince everyone that he can get there, to encourage to try digital tools, to show how to use them and to support step by step in this mastery. I always saw it : explain the how, This is the key to change to change. When we answer the question of how, People are much more serene to understand the benefits that change will bring them.
Digital Réunion works to create "the AI meeting team", Echoing the French AI team that Véronique Torner, The president of Numeum, calls. Who makes up this AI reunion team ?
There are two things. The digital meeting team in general, Digital Réunion is a part, With Cyber Réunion, French Tech Tech companies and public players. The goal is to play collective because by grouping our strengths we have more impact. Then there is the will of Digital Réunion to set up the IA meeting team. With nomeum supporters, Medef, from the Reunion region, with which a sector contract is being developed. In this AI team, We find French Tech, Since AI, It's digital applied to innovation, the Réunion Artificial Intelligence association, as well as the regional innovation agency. Here again, It will be a question of playing grouped, more particularly in a form that works well in Reunion : Private-public partnerships. I quote the example of the new call for candidates from the Reunion region to participate in the Viva Technology show, The number one tech event in Europe, in the month of June. Thanks to this public-private partnership, I hope that we can highlight the latest Reunionese advances in terms of AI and innovation in general.
*Numeum is the main professional organization of the digital ecosystem in France.
** Luc Julia, Renault scientific director, Technical director and vice-president for innovation at Samsung Electronics, Siri coconceptor, l’assistant vocal d’Apple. Guest of the Kwa L’Ia fé event, Organized by the Crealise and Digital Réunion Marketing Training Center, Luc Julia came to Reunion in December 2024 for a week of conferences and meetings on AI.
Anaïs Sery : the passion for learning and transmitting
"I did all my studies in Reunion", underlines Anaïs SERY. DUT in business and administrations management, then marketing specialty. Start in professional life in marketing advice. But also and above all, What characterizes Anaïs Sery's approach, It is a desire to update, to enrich and cross knowledge permanently, which makes him control and be able to popularize a large number of sharp knowledge. "I continue to train myself, essentially online, On AI subjects, marketing and other areas that I find super interesting, like leadership. »With her husband, now deceased, She created Marketing Reunion Consulting in 2015. Then, while carrying out support and market studies missions, Its activity focused on the development of the Sumup brand, which offers innovative digital payment solutions, from mobile terminals, adopted by many traders. "I mainly devoted myself, Until 2022, to the deployment of Sumup in Reunion and Mayotte. Then came the AI, with the desire to create the association Artificial Intelligence Reunion. I have assured the general management of Digital Réunion since April 2024, But I remain a business chief. I give training to public and private actors on artificial intelligence. I also put AI into practice in my business. »»
