The 2024 edition of the leading French annual trade fair dedicated to technology is over. The JDN was there and shares its impressions with you.
It is THE reference show in France dedicated to new technologies. For the 2024 edition of VivaTech, which was held from May 22 to 25, the companies present focused on presenting cutting-edge technologies expected to evolve the market in the medium term. The JDN obviously visited the site and shares some of its observations with you.
Robots, stars of AI
We now know that the future of AI will pass through robotics. And Vivatech gave an overview. In the aisles, it’s impossible to miss the robotic demonstrators augmented by artificial intelligence, from the classic and now well-known Spots dog robots from Boston Dynamics to the delivery robot from Pudu Robotics. Even large European groups took the risk this year of revealing some of the AI and autonomy projects from their R&D departments. Airbus thus presented its Flying Truck, a perfect reproduction of an airliner used to test new automation programs for its planes mainly using artificial intelligence.
European AI shows itself
More traditionally, generative AI has established itself in all sectors, whether it serves the generation of visuals or developers. AWS, Meta, Microsoft, like last year, promoted their LLMs but, a new development, European AI is slowly starting to establish itself at the show, with players like the French Mistral AI or LightOn… The need for Sovereign AI technologies therefore seem to be establishing themselves, as illustrated by the recent raising of 220 million euros from H, a new entrant in generative AI with renowned players: Bernard Arnault, Xavier Niel, Eric Schmidt, etc.
Greentech flourishes on all the pavilions
Climate tech was the second major theme highlighted at Vivatech after artificial intelligence. A dedicated space, called the Impact Bridge, has been set up. But there is no need to look for it to find solutions: green tech was present in all the pavilions through a multitude of start-ups. Like Droople, on the swisstech pavilion, highlighting its IoT sensors measuring water consumption. Water quality is also a sensitive subject to which MolluScan wanted to raise awareness, on the pavilion of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, with its solution connecting molluscs, deployed in the Gironde estuary, the port of Barcelona or in EDF power plants, which uses it to evaluate discharges.
It was attracted by a video of bioluminous plants that visitors were able to discover the start-up Aglaé, on the Centre-Val de Loire region pavilion. The latter has developed a serum to combine greening and intelligent lighting in cities. A little further on, two containers filled with algae intrigued us: this is a presentation from the start-up Magma. This young French company is launching into the cultivation of algae in connected ponds to monitor these plants with strong sales prospects in food and cosmetics. The Réunion pavilion was not left out in terms of the contribution of plants: the modular and connected green walls of the start-up Greenskin, whose production platform has just been inaugurated in an Esat in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais), were able to demonstrate their thermal insulation characteristics and the innovation of their autonomous watering system. A solution that makes you want to be surrounded by plants at work.
What we didn’t expect at VivaTech
If the show was the meeting place for technological innovation, for some it was also the meeting place for the unusual, even the attraction.
The large groups respected the same dress code: start-up atmosphere. Impossible to miss the iconic AWS connected table football or the ping-pong table in IBM colors. Activities that are always popular, sometimes more so than certain speaking engagements. Even Elise Lucet was spotted playing table football. The La Poste group also had its own little gadget: an exercise bike with a connected game, “The Champions Tour”, retracing the journey of a postman during the Olympics. For its part, the Ministry of the Armed Forces offered a car racing video game to attract young recruits.
Audi, Peugeot, Tesla, Meta, BYD… For this 2024 edition, VivaTech also looked like an auto show with cars with futuristic lines displayed in the four corners of the pavilions. A presence appreciated in view of the queue in front of the Audi exhibition and the number of phones brandished in front of Elon Musk’s Cybertruck. Some allowed themselves to daydream while settling into the vehicle, currently banned from driving in Europe. In comparison, the robots on wheels, the famous robot dog and the three-wheeled scooters present in the aisles almost pale in comparison.
Other guests surprised us, notably the cosmetics brands massively represented for this 2024 edition. If L’Oréal highlights its AI assistant “Beauty Genius” and its beautytech solutions, the group invited the Aesop brand so that visitors can… smell their soaps and perfumes.
The tech dimension is not obvious either on the stand of certain young skincare companies based on eggshells or with very transparent lists of compositions. VivaTech is certainly an opportunity for these start-ups to meet the investors present at Porte de Versailles. The JDN has passed its turn.
