The second day, June 12, delved into the theme of collaboration between AI and humans and highlighted startup innovation. During the conferences, several speakers demystified the impact of AI on work. Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, recalled that even with an AI writing “99% of the code”, humans will always be needed to review and validate it: in other words, far from eliminating jobs, AI could primarily increase productivity and allow us to build more. Dowson Tong, Vice President of Tencent, discussed the contrasting expectations of users regarding autonomous AI agents. “Some users want more control: to be assisted by agents, but with validation points. Others will prefer a simplified life by authorizing agents to act on their behalf (payments, use of their identity…). The younger generation, born with omnipresent AI, will likely be more comfortable with this level of delegation. But I imagine my parents wouldn’t trust it,” he illustrated. This reflection on agentic AI emphasizes the importance of trust and user choice in the adoption of these intelligent assistants.
In the retail sector, Fidji Simo (CEO of Instacart and future leader of OpenAI Apps) shared her vision of AI-augmented shopping rather than 100% automated. “Customers are not looking for a store completely empty of staff. They want real human activity. These technologies can truly contribute to augmenting human work – helping employees better support customers and making the in-store experience more pleasant, thanks to the assistance of smart carts while keeping human help. For us, it’s the ideal combination: augmentation, not replacement,” she explained. Regarding space exploration, Vanessa Wyche, Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, sent a message to innovators: “NASA is counting on you! Our startups and entrepreneurs have many challenges to meet – with concrete applications here on Earth as a result.” She encouraged startups to tackle major space issues, while highlighting potential benefits for daily life. Finally, in the field of robotics, Daniel Diez (Agility Robotics) insisted that his humanoid robots primarily target sectors facing labor shortages. “We are focusing on positions where it is difficult to recruit. It’s not about cutting jobs, but about filling those for which there are not enough candidates. One could build a very large company just by answering this need,” he stated, reframing the debate toward the talent shortage rather than technological substitution.
Day 2 concluded with a highlight: the Global VivaTech Awards Ceremony on the main stage. For the first time, a unified award ceremony (sponsored by TechCrunch) crowned the winners of five startup competitions vivatechnology.com:
- Female Founder Challenge: Hélène Briand, co-founder and CTO of Verley (award honoring female startup founders).
- AfricaTech Awards: grand winner REME-D.Inc (HealthTech), with category trophies for Plentify (GreenTech), REME-D.Inc (HealthTech), and Zeeh Africa (FinTech/e-commerce).
- Tech for Change: Adrienne de Malleray and the startup Genesis were rewarded for their solution combining social impact and technological innovation.
- Next Startupper Challenge: two young entrepreneurs honored – Zied Madini for Greeny Solutions and Typhaine Brual for Artemisia – celebrating the new generation of startuppers.
- Innovation of the Year: the French startup Chipiron wins with its portable MRI medical device, illustrating technological ingenuity capable of transforming a sector.
Furthermore, the morning saw the highly anticipated publication of the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 by Startup Genome (in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network). This 13th annual report analyzes data from over 5 million companies across 350 global ecosystems and ranks the top 40 tech hubs, as well as 100 promising emerging ecosystems. Unveiled at VivaTech, the GSER 2025 highlights regional trends and the challenges faced by entrepreneurs worldwide.
Finally, Day 2’s programming was notable for its diversity. Conferences explored both the potential of AI to accelerate drug discovery (session AI & Drug Discovery) and solutions to preserve the environment through data (session on tech for the planet). These high-level discussions – involving major corporations (AstraZeneca, European Environment Agency, etc.) and deeptech startups – showed how technology can provide concrete answers to health or climate challenges. With this second day rich in exchanges, VivaTech 2025 emphasized the importance of human-centric AI and celebrated innovative startups, in a resolutely optimistic spirit regarding the future of European tech.
