Good afternoon everybody. Nice to be with you this afternoon in this beautiful place. Like you every day and of course particularly today, I hear and read a lot of things about AI, about AI changing humanity, about AI replacing humanity for good or for bad. Even the pope is actually thinking about it today. He's probably the only one that was not invited, but next time. So we know that we don't know yet, but we also know that we have power to influence it. So let me begin with a simple provocative statement. What if everything that you've heard about artificial intelligence, about machines replacing people, was only half of the story? What if instead AI could be the very force that brings us closer together, that frees human to be more human, more creative, more interactive, more connected. So at FDJ United, we believe we have a role to play to influence this path. We have a role to play because we have a conviction which is with AI, we are putting the human back at the center of the game. Gaming company. So, I'm Stéphane Pallez. I'm the CEO and chairwoman of FDJ United, a European champion in the gaming sector. We are proud to operate one of the largest networks in France and in Ireland. We have 33 million players all across Europe, including 9 million digital users in more than 10 countries. So these numbers are big, but what is even more important for us is the trust and the confidence that those people have when they play with us in shop or online or both.
So let me talk about how we see the AI revolution. We definitely think that it is not just another wave of technology. We know that it's a shift. We know that it's a transformation that is as profound as electricity and the internet. We know that the IMF is talking about two-thirds of jobs being exposed at risk in AI. So we believe that as a company we have a huge responsibility to use this innovation and to use it the right way. So at FDJ United we think about it every day and we have adopted a strong and voluntary vision. AI is not about replacing people. It's about empowering them. It's about giving our teams the tools to move from repetitive low value tasks to work that is more strategic, more creative, and at the end of the day more human. So when we move this vision to action, what do we do? Well, first we train people. Sorry, first we let people experience AI. We've been doing that because we think it's essential that we build confidence in our workforce about this. We invited our employees to experiment and show us what they think AI can do for them. 90% of those we equipped with Microsoft Copilot engaged with it every month and 80% every week. So they definitely take it seriously. It did not happen by accident. It happened because we trained them. I think that one of my major commitments is that I will train 100% of my employees on AI. That is absolutely the minimum that we can do. And to do that we have formed a data and AI academy in partnership with Albert School, a European modern school for data and AI born in France.
So at FDJ United we believe that AI should give us the most precious resource of all, which is time. That's why we launched key experiments to help our people reinvest their energy where it truly counts: excellence. Just one example, we are currently already making real progress on how AI can empower creativity and reach visual production across our organization. By leveraging AI, our teams can imagine, design, and personalize communication materials faster than ever with impactful storytelling. And we are a media also. So they cut down production time. They enable more personalization from game design to in-store advertising. That's why, true to our commitment to build a French and European ecosystem of champions in AI and in their specific disciplines, we went a step further and announced last week a partnership with age company, the French agentic AI champion. This will enable us to identify high-value-added use cases to increase our productivity and to improve the experience of our players. I understand that you will hear more about age company later in the day because the CEO gota is going to come on the stage also. So this initiative proved that you can move fast, you can move with people, and you can move with concrete results in a short time frame.
We also believe that of course AI is for our customers and that's at the core of what we do. Our players will definitely benefit from it and they have started to benefit from it. First, responsible gaming. I will start with that because as a gaming company it is at the heart of our business model. We need to identify at-risk players. We need to monitor their behavior. We need to alert them. And for this we have built a tailored instrument. We have built actually an in-house AI powerhouse algorithm and we manage it. We call it FDJ protect. Second, we want every FDJ game experience to be unique and safe. We want to go beyond simply setting the right alert to accompany our customers in their journey when they play with us in a safe responsible way, but with keeping the fun and the emotion. So AI makes this possible and we are working now on a player protection team's instrument that will enable our teams to again accompany our players and to use human contact where it is needed, but again on the basis of a much more sophisticated way to identify at-risk players. And of course, you're going to tell me, well, AI is also for games because we're a gaming company. It's for games, and games are for fun. And for fun, well, we tested, it's only a test, but I can tell you that everybody is queuing for it. We tested a scratch card that actually everyone can produce in a personalized way. A unique scratch card in which you can create your own personal. Maybe you will guess who is under this photo of Mona Lisa. And we tested it at Vivatech. Our booth was surrounded by a huge queue of people who wanted to get their own. And of course, the avenue of the future of AI is also about personalized games and that's why we are working on it also.
So all this of course goes within a scheme where governance and ethics is key because this transformation is not without challenge. We believe that innovation should not be stopped but should go hand in hand with governance and ethics. From day one we have embedded security, transparency, and responsibility into every AI initiative. We have established an AI acceptance board that pre-assesses risk. We have published our responsible AI charter last year and we train our leaders and teams to use AI responsibly, ensuring that every technological advance we're making is matched by a commitment to our values. So we're not naive when we talk about AI. AI opens a wealth of new opportunities with risks, but it does not prevent us from moving fast. We move fast within this scheme.
So as a conclusion I would like to state again that as we look to the future, we definitely think that AI is not about machines, it's about humans, it's about humans taking back their time, their creativity, their humanity. And the other day I was reminded by people in Meta organization that humans are actually much more performant than AI. For instance, a human to produce a number of things is actually much more performant in terms of energy and water consumption. So definitely that's something we should take stock of. And also of course humans are able to produce complex things in complex systems with machines also, but in complex interactions with humans, and particularly humans are better when it involves something that goes beyond intelligence such as emotion. And we know that emotion is part of our world, part of our business, part of our society. And this is where we see huge potential for us to continue to grow by developing AI but by developing our expertise also in our company. So at FDJ United we have made a choice and we want to stick to it. We believe that the future of work and the future of play will be more human than ever. But only if we choose to put our people at the center every step of the way, because ultimately every successful AI transformation is a human transformation. It requires vision. It requires courage. It requires willingness to learn and adapt every day. So with AI, we're not just challenging the game. We make sure that at every moment, humans are at the heart of it. Thank you very much.
