FRENCH shipping giant CMA CGM and tech startup Mistral AI have announced a collaboration from which they expect rapid productivity gains from a EUR100 million (US$109 million).

The five-year partnership, which will bring CMA CGM's AI-related spending to EUR500 million, will focus on customer service in shipping and logistics and factchecking at its French media businesses that include news channel BFM TV.

In a joint interview with Mistral's co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch, CMA CGM's chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saade declined to give financial targets for return on investment.

But Mr Saade said "the implementation of initiatives should not exceed six to 12 months" and would slash response times for customer advisers receiving one million emails a week, including requests on routing of vessels.

After drawing massive funding, the AI sector is under pressure to deliver gains, with the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek unsettling investors.

Mistral gained huge exposure at an international AI gathering in Paris in February, feted by French President Emmanuel Macron as a European champion to compete with American giants such as OpenAI, which produces ChatGPT.