Publisher staff 'fairly positive' about AI tools, according to survey in France

Artificial intelligence has become a part of life for all French publishers, whether large or small, according to a first survey conducted on the issue by the French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l’Edition, SNE).  

The results, drawn from 257 responses to 15 questions that remained online between 24th September and 23rd November, showed that publishers are starting to draw up charters defining and regulating the use of these tools. Most of these are linked to widely used office software, with a third of respondents mentioning Adobe and Microsoft.

The results were presented at an SNE book conference in Paris last week by Florent Souillot, head of the association’s digital commission and digital head for Madrigall, which owns Gallimard and Flammarion.  

The survey found that staff were “fairly positive” about AI tools overall. Such tools are used “little” by editorial teams, but more extensively by colleagues in commercial departments, including accounts, finance and distribution.

Saving time and finding information were considered the most important uses, respondents said. Help with creation came third. The best-equipped publishing sectors were dictionaries and encyclopedias, followed by school textbooks, science/technology/medicine/management, maps and law.  

Of the 257 respondents, 252 work for publishing houses and five for distributors. Of them, nearly 40% said their employers, regardless of size, had provided them with one or more AI solutions. A third of them said they were aware their companies had an opt-out device to prevent content-scraping.