Why France’s Robots Need Europe to Compete: A Call to Unite with Firas Abi Farraj

French robotics challenges, talent gaps, and empathetic AI futures explored by Firas Abi Farraj. Can Europe collaborate to compete globally?

France's robotics industry, despite its flair for revolutionary design and empathetic technology, faces systemic challenges in scaling, ranging from fragmented hardware ecosystems to risk-averse funding, that could impede its global competitiveness.

To test this, we spoke with Firas Abi Farraj, robotics innovator and leader at Enchanted Tools. He dissects France’s structural gaps, cultural strengths in "cool robots," and the urgent need for European collaboration to rival US-Asian dominance.

Interview with Firas Abi Farraj

1. What are the biggest challenges facing the robotics industry in France today?

Well, the challenges facing the robotics industry in France are not really particular. Some of them are particular to France, some of them are more like… European, I would say. So, in general, the particular difference between France and the rest of the EU is that Germany and Switzerland have been more focused on manufacturing for the past decade.

The automotive industry exists in France, but other manufacturing industries, especially robotics, are less present when it comes to hardware. We don't have companies like KUKA, like ABB and so on. We have fewer of them. So this lack of mid-size robotics companies is a structural weakness and it makes finding the right people in these domains, finding the right hardware engineers, harder. There's a lot of competition in finding these people. That's one thing.

On the other hand, France has always been in the lead when it comes to cool robots. Everybody knows NAO and Pepper from Aldebaran. There's, in general, a French culture around design and around making cool stuff, making stuff which people want. And at Enchanted Tools this is quite important for us. That's what we are doing, and that's a big advantage. Our engineers have more sensitivity than others for these design aspects, which is cool.

The other main challenge is, of course, the challenge in all of Europe: fundraising. Fundraising is harder in Europe than it is in the US. We are getting quite some support from the French government and from Europe in general, actually. But still, if you compare it to the US, it's at a different level. So this makes it challenging. This is, I think, the main challenge which faces the robotics industry. Europeans are a bit more wary when investing.

Robotics is still niche, still new. We are creating the market as we go. So it's not a classic industry. You need risk-takers there, and there are more of them in the US. So that's the second challenge and it's quite an important one.

2. How would you describe the current state of robotics innovation and adoption in France compared to other regions?

On the innovation level, France is well placed in general. We have a lot of smart engineers in France who are here to innovate, to create. There is also the sensibility to design, which I've just mentioned, which makes France more innovative in the way we do things than other countries. You can see that, for example, in our robots, clearly.

So these are strong points. Innovation-wise, France is solid. The French do not necessarily shy away from innovation, creating new stuff, being unconventional. We are comfortable with that here. And that gives France a strong point on innovation.

On the adoption of robotics in France, if you compare it to places like China, the US, or Japan, we are surely behind. People are kind of wary about robotics. In China they are less wary about new stuff, new technology, and so on. There's kind of an attachment to tradition in a certain way in France, which I would say is very valuable on several aspects, but it makes the adoption of robots a bit slower here compared to other places.

There is, of course, the notion that robots are here to take the jobs and so on, but this is not only in France. I mean, we feel it here, but I guess we feel it also elsewhere. In France there is more attachment to protecting workers, to protecting people in general, their careers, their families and so on. This decreases the speed of adoption of robotics compared to other regions.

3. What role does government policy or funding play in supporting robotics startups and scale-ups in France?

The government is actually quite supportive to startups. We are getting nice support from the government. They are behind us, they are helping us when it comes to some research projects or some funding and so on. But the support is more R&D-focused than scale-up focused.

I think where the government can play more of a role is in pushing for more foreign investment in startups, and creating the right ecosystem, pushing more to create the right ecosystem and to attract startups from abroad. I mean, we're seeing what Trump is doing to attract investments to the US. France is trying, especially with Emmanuel Macron. We see that effort. But I think we need more.

We need a political push in order to basically make us more present on the international stage. And we need also more support internally from the French government in, for example, facilitating the creation of the market.

There's a question around regulations as well. It's not as easy in France to test stuff compared to the US. For example, Waymo would have had a hard time in Paris. We have fewer technological experiments, let's call them, which are organized by the French government. I think that's also where government policy could have an influence in supporting robotics startups more.

4. How is the French robotics ecosystem addressing the talent gap in engineering, AI and manufacturing?

Well, I have mentioned a bit before, there are very good engineers in France, in general, especially when it comes to math, AI, control, optimization, all these kinds of fields. So we have very good engineers there. There are also very good electronics engineers and mechanical engineers. In general, we have talent.

The main issue is that, currently, a lot of this talent is oriented towards classical industries, especially when it comes to hardware. They do not see necessarily the opportunities in robotics yet, and they are mostly driven towards, let's say, traditional industries such as automotive. So that's why sometimes it's harder for us to hire mechanical engineers, for example, than it would be in Switzerland or in Germany.

On the other hand, robotics taught in French universities is still more of classical robotics. Research labs, most of them are still oriented toward classical methods. We do have some labs which are training AI engineers, I am talking about AI for robotics such as reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, robotic foundation models, etc.

There are some academic labs which are jumping onto that but not many, not enough. We need a bigger focus on that. AI engineers, when it comes to classic AI, LLMs, computer vision, audio, all of that, France is quite strong. AI for robotics is slightly lagging behind AI in other domains I might say.

5. What sectors in France do you see as the most promising for robotics growth in the next 5-10 years?

This is a hard question. Usually the 5-10 year questions are hard questions, especially given that I am someone who is quite factual and it is hard to find factual answers for these questions.

But I think from a cultural perspective in France, empathetic robots have a future here. For robots to have a future here, they will need to be empathetic. They will need to take into account the human in the loop. This is quite important. I think robots and robotic companies that take into account the human are the ones which will win in France, and they are the ones which will find the biggest market here.

There is always industrial robotics of course which does exist in France. But I do not think it will be the main winner. The main winner will be robots that are doing jobs which people don't want to do, jobs that are not necessarily easy to fill, and robots that are able to work with humans to do these jobs, having the human at the center. Robots and robotics companies which keep the human at the center are the ones which would win the market in France.

6. How can French robotics companies better compete globally, especially against large players from the US and Asia?

Well, the answer here is more European collaboration. We need a European ecosystem. There's fairly good French ecosystem, there's a very good Swiss robotics ecosystem, especially around Zurich. There's quite a good German robotics ecosystem.

Each has its strengths and weaknesses. There's also, of course, robotics in Italy, Spain, etc. There's also some effort from local governments to create such ecosystems at the local level. But I think what we need to be able to compete globally is creating this ecosystem at the European level. A tightly connected European robotics ecosystem is essential.

And this could completely be driven by the EU. In general, we have everything we need to create such an ecosystem, to enforce the existing ecosystem, if I might say, because the ecosystem does exist in a way. We need to create more communication channels, to encourage more collaboration and so on. There's actually a very nice ecosystem in academia. Everybody works with everybody there.

There were several initiatives by the EU which led academic labs to work closely with other academic labs. There have been efforts to include companies also in this loop, but more can be done here. It is still mostly focused on early research and not on scale-up. We need more policy which encourages European companies to work with European companies and to partner together and to create an ecosystem together to push things forward.

On the other hand, of course, French robotics companies need to open up to the world. We are doing that. I mean, we have a presence in the U.S. right now, and we need to be present everywhere where we can be present in the world. This is quite essential. Robotics is a small community. It is not a huge space. We hear about it all the time, but it's still a small community. It's kind of a small village on the world scale. So we also need to collaborate internationally.

Nobody has won yet, I think, in robotics. The market—especially if we put aside the classic industrial market, and focus on the service robotics market—nobody has won yet. The market is still not really strongly present, we are trying to create this market, and it's not time for competition yet, I believe it's time for collaboration.