A trade association has two responsibilities when it comes to generative AI: adopting it for its own work, and helping its members not to miss the shift.
FICT chose to do both with GENIAL. First internally, with an assessment, a roadmap and an AI platform for the whole team. Then for the whole industry, with an AI literacy partnership.
The context: an industry under pressure, with a strong appetite for AI
The French charcuterie and deli industry works with tight margins and heavy regulatory requirements: food labeling rules (INCO), allergens, traceability. Generative AI is a lever, provided it is approached with method.
A survey FICT ran among its members in fall 2025 (42 respondents) confirms it: 60% of companies already use off-the-shelf AI tools, led by ChatGPT, used by 85% of them. Yet more than 85% of executives see themselves as beginners or intermediate users. What was missing wasn't tools, but method and training.
An AI assessment and roadmap for the association
GENIAL started with FICT itself: an assessment of the team's uses and needs, then an AI roadmap setting the priority use cases and the rollout plan.
This step gave the association what it would later pass on to its members: a method proven on its own work before being taught.
GENIAL, the AI platform of the whole team
Every FICT employee uses GENIAL every day. The platform has become the company's AI: one shared, governed workspace, rather than a patchwork of consumer tools opened by each person.
The meeting assistant completes the setup. Minutes, decisions and action items come out of every meeting, and what was said then feeds the assistant and the agents.
- One AI platform shared by the whole team, rather than scattered individual accounts.
- The meeting assistant, so that every meeting produces its minutes and its action items.
- A rollout guided by the roadmap that came out of the assessment.
Building AI literacy across the industry: the FICT × GENIAL partnership
FICT and GENIAL then built a program to raise awareness of AI and build AI literacy among the association's 250 member companies. It relies on three complementary formats, from the broadest to the most in-depth.
“2026 will be the year our industry turns generative AI into a competitive advantage.”
Webinars that reached more than 100 attendees
The webinars are the entry point: understanding what generative AI concretely changes for a charcuterie and deli company, watching demos, asking questions. They brought together more than 100 attendees.
AI Leadership training: preparing the industry's AI Champions
The AI Leadership training is for employees set to become AI Champions for their company or their business team. Each session lasts 2 days and brings together 10 to 20 employees, to keep the feel of a workshop rather than a lecture.
The program, co-designed by FICT and GENIAL, runs from understanding AI to an action plan: every participant leaves with a first roadmap for their company.
- Day 1: understand AI, map your company's current uses, prioritize use cases and estimate their ROI.
- Day 2: design a quick win and a structural use case, lead the change, draft an AI policy.
- At the end: a 90-day action plan presented to the group, and a network of peers in the industry.
A 62-page practical AI guide for the industry's companies
Finally, FICT and GENIAL wrote a practical guide together, for the executives, managers and digital project leads of member companies. It makes the approach usable without waiting for a training session.
- A 4-step AI assessment approach.
- 10 AI use cases specific to charcuterie and deli, from vision-based quality control to labeling compliance, with target ROI and complexity levels.
- An adoption method, an overview of available funding and ready-to-use documents: draft AI policy, assessment template, prioritization grid.
