AI and Privacy: French Consumers More Wary Than European Average!

For its 16th edition, the annual Adobe report on digital trends draws on responses from 7,000 consumers, executives, and business decision-makers worldwide. Conducted by Oxford Economics between October and November 2025, the survey presents a nuanced picture. While generative AI is beginning to yield concrete results in businesses, agentive AI (systems capable of acting autonomously on behalf of a user) still encounters significant distrust among consumers, particularly in France.

French Consumers Exercise Caution Towards Agentive AI

In Europe, about four out of ten consumers are willing to interact with a brand’s AI agent if offered. In France, this figure drops to 30%. The gap widens further when it comes to personal AI agents: 41% of French respondents are closed to this idea, compared to only 27% at the European level. Additionally, 42% of French participants indicate they have not yet considered this possibility, leaving a significant “pool of undecided” still available. Globally, the report notes that only 19% of consumers want AI agents to become their main mode of interaction with brands, whereas 49% of companies anticipate this evolution. This represents a significant perception gap.

In response to evolving customer expectations, businesses must orchestrate agentive experiences driven by AI, capable of acting and reacting at all touchpoints, stated Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe Enterprise.

Trust remains the primary driver of adoption. The top reassurance factor, both in France and Europe, is the ability to switch to a human interlocutor at any time (39% in France, 35% in Europe). Transparency emerges as a non-negotiable condition: 31% of French would stop interacting with a brand if they discovered they were communicating with an AI believing it to be a human. Additionally, the attention window that brands have is extremely short. 51% of French consumers believe that promotional content has only two to five seconds to capture their interest, and 27% make their decision in less than two seconds.

Generative AI Produces Tangible Results in Business

While agentive AI is still in its early stages, generative AI shows measurable benefits. In France, 74% of companies report that generative AI has “improved the volume and speed of ideation, as well as content production”, a figure consistent with the European average (73%). Another significant indicator: 67% of French companies observe that generative AI has enabled non-creative teams to produce content (70% in Europe). Globally, the most frequently cited benefits by organizations include employee productivity, marketing revenue growth, and improved customer personalization.

Regarding infrastructure, most companies already have the technical foundations for generative AI. 89% have suitable cloud technology, and 71% possess a shared customer data platform. However, deployment across the organization remains limited. According to the report, only a minority of companies (between one-fifth and one-third depending on workflows) have fully integrated generative AI across functions. Investment priorities for the next 18 months focus on personalizing the customer experience (56%), improving satisfaction and loyalty (46%), and automating repetitive tasks (45%).

Scaling Hindered by Data and Internal Organization

The main obstacle to deploying agentive AI remains the quality and integration of data. In France, 78% of companies cite this barrier as the most significant (76% in Europe). Only 36% of French companies report having a suitable shared customer data platform for agentive AI, and an equivalent proportion believes that the quality and accessibility of its data are currently sufficient. The report also highlights a paradox: while 75% of organizations recognize that data is the foremost challenge for agentive AI, only 32% place data quality and governance among their investment priorities.

Beyond data, companies face internal tensions. Nearly one-third of respondents indicate a misalignment between leaders and practitioners on AI strategy, and 47% believe that alignment is only partial. The report identifies leaders’ lack of understanding of AI as the primary cause of this discrepancy (61%), ahead of resistance to change (52%) and poor communication about the role of AI (52%). Regarding training, only 45% of organizations consider they have adequate skill development programs, and 44% believe their employees are comfortable using AI in their daily work. This issue is all the more pressing as 58% of organizations agree that employees who do not adopt AI risk falling behind in their roles.