The French economic fabric approaches 2024 with a paradox: the tools to accelerate business performance have never been more accessible, but the regulatory framework governing them is tightening at a comparable speed. With the gradual implementation of the European AI Act, the rewriting of rules on commercial influence, and rapidly changing customer expectations, growth levers can no longer be reduced to a list of generic best practices.
AI Act and business performance: what compliance changes from 2024
Most articles on business performance recommend automating, personalizing marketing, or adopting artificial intelligence tools. None mention the European AI regulation, whose first restrictions will apply from 2024-2025 for high-risk systems, before full implementation scheduled for August 2, 2026.
For a business using AI in its commercial scoring, customer relationship, or content strategy, this implies a direct constraint: data traceability and risk management become prerequisites, not options. A marketing personalization tool that exploits customer data without compliant documentation exposes the company to sanctions.
Specifically, companies betting on AI to boost their sales in 2024 must integrate three dimensions into their roadmap: map existing AI uses, assess their risk level under the regulation, and allocate resources for compliance. The performance gains achieved through these resources are discussed on the business page of Finance Technique, which details the financial trade-offs related to growth.
Ignoring this regulatory framework amounts to building a commercial strategy on a legally fragile foundation. Field feedback varies on the actual cost of compliance for SMEs, but the risk of having to deactivate a tool mid-campaign is well documented.
Commercial strategy and influence: the new rules of the marketing game
The French ordinance of November 2024 rewrote Article 5 of the law on commercial influence to align France with European Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices. The goal: to relax certain display mentions of commercial intent while enhancing overall transparency.
For companies integrating influencer marketing into their sales strategy, this change modifies the operational mechanics. Partnerships with content creators must now adhere to a precise framework on how commercial intent is signaled to prospects.
An non-compliant influencer campaign can be reclassified as misleading commercial practice. This is not a theoretical risk: the directive explicitly covers product recommendations by paid third parties.
Companies that make the most of this lever in 2024 are those that formalize their influencer contracts with compliance clauses, rather than settling for informal agreements. Marketing performance comes from securing the legal channel, not just from the volume of content produced.
Sales and customer experience: where performance really happens
The available data do not allow for concluding that a single factor explains a company’s commercial performance. However, several signals converge on one observation: the quality of the customer experience weighs more than the volume of prospects generated.
A business that invests heavily in acquisition without nurturing the post-purchase relationship loses a significant portion of the value created. The cost of acquiring a new customer remains several times higher than the cost of retention, and this asymmetry is exacerbated in a context where advertising channels become more expensive.
Three areas deserve particular attention to improve customer relationship performance:
- Reduce response time to incoming requests, including on online channels. A prospect who waits more than a few hours typically turns to a competitor.
- Structure after-sales follow-up with scheduled touchpoints, not just reactive ones. Field teams that schedule follow-ups at regular intervals see a higher repurchase rate.
- Utilize customer feedback as a source of product improvement, not just as a satisfaction indicator. A detailed negative review is worth more than a generic satisfaction score.
The customer experience is not an isolated department. It permeates the commercial strategy, product design, and company communication.
Performance management: choosing the right indicators rather than all indicators
The temptation to multiply dashboards is strong. Current reporting tools allow tracking dozens of metrics in real-time. The problem is rarely the lack of data, but the absence of hierarchy among the monitored indicators.
A company that simultaneously monitors conversion rate, average basket, NPS, churn rate, cost per lead, and ROI by channel ends up not managing any of these indicators correctly. Sales teams spend more time filling out dashboards than selling.
The recommendation that emerges from feedback from high-performing companies is counterintuitive: limit tracking to three or four key indicators per quarter, aligned with a single strategic objective. A quarter focused on acquisition cannot be managed with the same metrics as a quarter focused on profitability.
- Acquisition objective: cost per lead, first purchase conversion rate, volume of qualified prospects.
- Profitability objective: margin per customer, repurchase rate, customer lifetime value.
- Awareness objective: share of voice on key queries, organic traffic, brand mentions.
Changing indicators each quarter is not a sign of instability. It is a sign that the strategy is adapting to market reality.
The performance of a business in 2024 is not just about applying known recipes faster than competitors. The European regulatory framework redefines the conditions for using the most promising tools, while the customer relationship remains the least costly and most underutilized lever. Choosing a few indicators, tracking them rigorously, and legally securing sales channels: it is on these trade-offs that the gap between advancing companies and those that stagnate is played out.