A launch at the Spring of Territories
On 21 May 2026, at the Centquatre in Paris, the Banque des Territoires, a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts, launched « Territoires d'IA », a program aimed at accelerating by 2030 the use of artificial intelligence by local authorities in their public services. Two quantified objectives are stated: supporting 100 000 public agents in the use of AI and deploying 15 use cases that are operational and replicable from one local authority to another.
The program involves the State (the Interministerial Digital Directorate, Dinum, and the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion), associations of elected officials and digital public actors (the Association of Mayors of France, Les Interconnectés, Déclic) and two companies, Mistral AI and Docaposte.
“Artificial intelligence is already a reality in the territories: nearly 8 out of 10 local authorities are engaged. Our role is now to support them in scaling up.” Antoine Saintoyant, director of the Banque des Territoires, press release of 21 May 2026.
This figure is based on the 2025 barometer of the Observatoire Data Publica: 77 % of local authorities have already taken up AI or are about to launch projects, and 62 % see data mastery as a major sovereignty issue.
Responding to “shadow AI”
The initial diagnosis is simple. Ministries have a digital directorate, Dinum, which is set to become the State's Authority for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, named “Ariane”. Local authorities, for their part, are moving forward without a common framework. Depending on their resources, some develop their own tools, others turn to consumer solutions, mostly American. The Minister of Public Action and Accounts, David Amiel, summed up the urgency at the launch: according to him, “half of the agents were already using AI tools outside the framework”.
Four levers and three initial use cases
The program is based on four tools:
- an “AI Factory” to design, test and share solutions with pilot local authorities, backed by the partnership signed on 4 May 2026 between the Caisse des Dépôts and Mistral AI;
- a co-financing counter, open continuously to local authorities and intercommunalities, which finances 30 % to 50 % of eligible expenses for purchasing licenses and sovereign AI software;
- an engineering support, including for developing strategies to exit non-sovereign solutions;
- a collective facilitation via the Numérique360 platform (webinars, feedback, guides).
Three use cases have been selected to start: automatic detection of road degradation in Côte-d'Or, assistants for rural town hall secretaries in the Grand Est (legal monitoring, access to aid) and automatic routing of residents' reports to the right services at Bordeaux Métropole.
A component of the Horizon Numérique 2030 plan
Territoires d'IA is one of the six pillars of Horizon Numérique 2030, the plan presented on 26 February 2026 by the Caisse des Dépôts. This plan mobilizes 18 billion euros by 2030, including 6 billion in investments over 2026-2030 and 12 billion in subsidies, guarantees and loans, distributed among the group's subsidiaries. It is therefore a commitment from the Caisse des Dépôts on its own funds, not a state budget. No specific envelope for Territoires d'IA has been made public.
The State joined the program on 22 May: David Amiel announced a collaboration to share use cases and feedback, and the Dinum sits on the partnership committee. A few weeks later, the Prime Minister announced the deployment of "L'Assistant", a sovereign conversational agent, for all state agents before the end of 2026. The idea is that tools tested on one side benefit the other.
The questions that remain open
The first concerns sovereignty itself. The program relies on a main private partner, Mistral AI, for its tools. This is a choice consistent with the desire to favor a French player, but it creates another form of dependency, this time national. At the launch, Dorothée Lebarbier, CEO of the company Altitude, recalled that the issue goes beyond software: "If local authorities continue to use Google messaging or host their data with Amazon, there will never be sovereignty in France." Minister Delegate Anne Le Hénanff, for her part, advocated for "favoring French players through public procurement."
The second question is that of resources. Co-financing of 30 % to 50 % leaves the majority of the expense to be borne by local authorities, and not all of them have the budgets or the skills to manage an AI project. The Banque des Territoires press release itself cites the lack of technical skills, constrained financial resources, and insufficient data quality among the obstacles. The risk is that the best-endowed metropolitan areas and regions will capture most of the program.
The third is political. In its report of November 2025, the Cour des comptes noted that actions aimed at territories had not been a priority of the national AI strategy. Territoires d'IA partially fills this gap, but through a public financial actor rather than a coordinated national policy.
What to remember
Territoires d'IA marks a realization: AI in local public services is already spreading, often outside any framework, and on foreign tools. The program offers a concrete, shared, and sovereign response, with measurable objectives. Its success will depend on its ability to reach small municipalities and to demonstrate, use case after use case, that sovereign AI can be as easy to adopt as the mainstream tools it aims to replace.
Sources
- Banque des Territoires, launch press release for Territoires d'IA, 21 May 2026
- Localtis, "Territoires d'IA: the Banque des Territoires and Mistral AI launch a sovereign program for 100 000 public agents," 22 May 2026
- Démarches numériques, Territoires d'IA co-financing portal
- Ministry of Action and Public Accounts, press release of 22 May 2026
- Caisse des Dépôts, launch of Horizon Numérique 2030, 26 February 2026
- Localtis, details of the 18 billion of Horizon Numérique 2030, 2 March 2026
- Government, AI announcements of 16 June 2026
- Court of Auditors, summary of the report on the national AI strategy, November 2025
