AI users are not all alike: The characteristics of French firms buying and developing AI
基于2018年法国ICT调查数据，区分外部购买AI与自主研发AI的企业，发现AI开发者规模更大、更年轻且生产率更高，而AI购买者的规模优势与ICT相关。
In this work we characterise French firms using artificial intelligence (AI) in 2018 and explore the link between AI use and productivity. We distinguish AI users that source AI from external providers (AI buyers) from those developing their own AI systems (AI developers) based on the official French ICT survey, that provides information about the use of AI by firms. AI buyers tend to be larger than other firms, but this relation is explained by ICT-related variables. Conversely, AI developers are larger and younger beyond ICT. Other digital technologies, digital skills, and infrastructure play a key role for AI use, with AI developers leveraging more specialised ICT human capital than AI buyers. Overall, AI users tend to be more productive, however this is related to the self-selection of more productive and digital-intensive firms into AI use. This is not the case for AI developers, for which the positive link between AI use and productivity remains positive and significant. This relationship persists across multiple robustness checks, including analyses addressing endogeneity concerns.