TLDR: Artificial intelligence is profoundly reshaping society, from healthcare to finance, according to an interview with entrepreneur Gilles Babinet and Lombard Odier’s Pascale Seivy. The discussion highlights AI’s tangible impact across various sectors and emphasizes Europe’s ambition to forge a sovereign, ethical, and sustainable approach to AI, distinct from the models of the US and China. Key themes include the necessity of regulation, energy frugality, and targeted AI applications to align with environmental goals.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not merely a technological advancement but a fundamental force redrawing the very fabric of society, impacting sectors from healthcare to finance. This profound transformation was the central theme of a recent interview with entrepreneur Gilles Babinet, chair of the AI Café initiative, and Pascale Seivy, Commercial Director at Lombard Odier in France, published on October 9, 2025.
Babinet articulates that AI is no longer an abstract promise but a tangible reality, actively shaping how we produce goods, acquire knowledge, diagnose diseases, and care for individuals. He notes its revolutionary impact on diagnostic practices in healthcare, its role in driving radical disintermediation in administration through intelligent agents, and its extensive reshaping of industry and agriculture. “What excites me is the interface between technology and society. AI is not an abstract promise, but a tangible reality. From now on, it will shape how we produce things, acquire knowledge, diagnose disease or care for people,” Babinet stated.
Pascale Seivy echoed this sentiment, describing the current era as a “genuine tipping point” and a “cataclysm, but a positive one, if the right safeguards are in place.” She underscored the critical need to ensure AI is not only powerful but also sovereign and ethical to truly serve human progress.
The interview also delves into Europe’s strategic position in the global AI race. While acknowledging the dominance of the United States and China in generative AI, Babinet and Seivy advocate for an alternative, more responsible European course. They call for an ambitious European strategy built on careful regulation, frugal energy consumption, and the targeted application of AI. This approach aims to champion a sovereign and ethical AI, leveraging regulation as a catalyst for innovation.
Energy frugality and the judicious use of AI are deemed essential for its compatibility with the ongoing environmental transition. The experts emphasize that technology will cease to be a separate sector, instead becoming an invisible infrastructure integral to the entire economy. Despite a slowdown in sustainability progress in 2025 due to geopolitical uncertainties, the energy crisis, and budgetary trade-offs, the transition towards sustainability remains both inevitable and structurally vital for future innovation.
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Lombard Odier, a financial player supporting this vision, believes in an era of economics-led sustainable investing, focusing on a net-zero, nature-positive, socially constructive, and digitally enabled economy. The bank’s philosophy of ‘rethink everything®’ guides its approach to navigating system changes driven by climate change, energy transitions, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological advances like AI. Europe, with its talent, infrastructure, and potential leadership on climate issues, holds the cards to establish itself as the continent where technological innovation is entirely at the service of the environment, provided it can overcome its internal constraints.
