The head of one of Europe’s fastest-growing artificial intelligence startups said he expects artificial intelligence technology to go beyond large language models this year.
Arthur Mensch, CEO of French AI company Mistral, told CNBC that he sees the focus on products in AI moving largely away from models in 2025 and more towards “systems.” integrating models and contextual business data.
“I think the focus should be on systems,” Mensch told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal in an interview Tuesday. “Models are part of systems, but systems are connected to data, connected to tools, able to actually do things on your behalf, able to act agentically.”
Founded just two years ago, Mistral has quickly become one of Europe’s hottest AI companies, with a valuation of $6 billion and the backing of the US tech giant. Microsoft last year. Considered a competitor to OpenAI, the startup is behind the development of several major open source language models.
Last year, a lot of buzz emerged in the tech industry about so-called AI “agents.” This refers to the idea of AI assistants capable of acting autonomously with limited human supervision. Unlike AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the models are meant to work largely in the background.
Mensch sees AI systems in the future that will benefit from the large language models built into them. He said that by connecting the models to relevant contextual data, they will be able to better offer tailored solutions for different business needs.
“That’s where things change,” Mensch said. “It also means that the industry that adopts it is going to distill its expertise into these systems – and that’s where it’s going to be needed to really bring the value of AI into these industries.”
AI is at the heart of discussions at the World Economic Forum’s annual forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year. The event is known for bringing together the most influential leaders in business and politics.
On Davos Promenade, which is the focal point of the annual event, major companies from Salesforce to Workday have taken over cafes, boutiques and restaurants, building temporary meeting and event spaces branded widely displays the word “AI”.