The New Metronome of Excellence: 140 Years of Craftsmanship, Meet AI

A conversation with Arnaud Montois—Management and Business Lead at Henri Selmer Paris and Vice-President of USVC—on bridging the gap between 140 years of tradition, high-performance sports, and the new frontier of AI-driven training.

By Louise Servoin · 2026-05-29 · 6 min read

## Arnaud Montois – Management and Business Lead at Henri Selmer Paris

Expert in international sales, high-value manufacturing, and musical pedagogy. Alumnus of ESC Gaston Berger and the Arras Conservatory. Leader in the global development of the world’s most prestigious woodwind brands, navigating the intersection of artisan soul and industrial rigor. Based in France.

Some leaders understand the balance sheet. Others understand the soul of a handmade instrument. Rarely do you find someone who can conduct both while managing a global distribution network across Europe, Africa, and beyond.

Arnaud Montois’ trajectory—from the engineering and commercial halls of ESC Gaston Berger to the conductor’s podium at the Nomain Music Academy, and now to the strategic management of Henri Selmer Paris, which celebrates its 140th anniversary in 2025—places him at a unique intersection of heritage and efficiency. We sat down with Arnaud to discuss how AI can protect the “human touch” in high-craft industries and why the next generation of luthiers and managers must embrace AI-assisted training to survive.

## The Conductor Mindset

Arnaud, you have a dual identity as both a high-level business strategist and a trained musician and conductor. How does the “conductor” mindset influence how you manage global markets for a house like Selmer?

These are, in reality, the same disciplines. In an orchestra, as in an international commercial network, the goal is to coordinate individual talents to produce a harmonious and coherent result. Above all, it requires considerable upstream work to know each element and each person perfectly.

At Henri Selmer Paris, we are fortunate to have 140 years of history and expertise behind us in clarinets, saxophones, mouthpieces, and reeds.

My role is that of a “rational creative.” With the rigor acquired during my studies, both at ESC Gaston Berger and at the conservatory, I first seek to understand each stakeholder — distributors, retailers, teachers, musicians — and I work to ensure they coexist harmoniously with the instruments and accessories we offer. Finally, I try to design projects that bring all of them into action together.

Each market has its own tempo, each musician has their own requirements; it is up to us to understand them and adapt.

## AI-Assisted Training

You have worked for many years with the CSFI (Chambre Syndicale de la Facture Instrumentale), and you are close to the ITEMM (European Technological Institute for Music Trades). How could AI-assisted training transform the transmission of high-value know-how today? How could AI-assisted training transform musical learning?

In high-craft trades, in fields built on specialized know-how, the main barrier has always been the time required to master ancestral gestures, to refine them, to perfect them.

Today, AI-powered training tools could accelerate this learning curve without sacrificing quality. Our industry is gradually embracing this shift, but it still needs time.

Imagine a young luthier or a factory manager able to instantly access, through an AI co-pilot, decades of technical knowledge drawn from manufacturing archives. Imagine a sales representative able to access precise information about their markets and their clients.

During the COVID-19 crisis, our trades and our clients suffered considerably from a complete lack of awareness around the hygiene principles tied to instrumental practice. With AI-assisted systems, the protocols that took so long to design and roll out could have been implemented far more quickly.

The goal is not to replace the teacher or the master craftsman, but to offer the student an “intelligent assistant” capable of helping them rehearse the fundamentals and train themselves to do things well. For an apprentice musician, having such a tool — guided by their teacher’s recommendations and tailored to their own challenges, age, and musical style preferences — to generate varied and diverse exercises would be a real asset.

"It is in this final mile that excellence is decided." — Arnaud Montois

## The Gap Between Tradition and Technology

Where is the “bridge” between traditional management and the adoption of intelligent digital tools weakening today?

The breaking point often stems from the fear of losing the “human touch.” Many believe that automating certain management or technical tasks and using AI to structure work amounts to losing the soul of the product. That is simply not true.

In my field, whether at Selmer or elsewhere, the main obstacle has always been the administrative burden — that “noise” which prevents a workshop head, a manager, or an employee from being in the field, in the factory, or with their clients.

AI assistants are genuine tools for cognitive offloading. By automating recurring tasks — data cleansing, schedule optimization, the first stages of training, task reminders — they free up human time. They protect our “useful” time.

If a digital assistant takes on the laborious tasks, then I can devote myself more fully to the people around me.

## The Question of the Future

As AI tends to commoditize “average” knowledge, what, in your view, is the human skill that no algorithm will ever be able to reproduce in the world of music?

The “natural fight.”

I see it in competitive cycling at USVC*. An algorithm can design the perfect training plan, but it will never feel the wind, the fatigue, or the determination required in the final 400 meters of a race.

In business, it is exactly the same. AI can hand us the map of the market, but it is the human being who chooses the destination and the time it takes to get there.

In our field, the birth of a saxophone or a clarinet flows from subtle, sometimes irregular decisions, from deeply human intuitions. We can use AI to provide the framework, to better understand the need — the “metronome” — but it is the human being who finalizes the creation, who assembles all the ingredients in the right order so that the recipe comes together.

Arnaud is the VP of a French cycling club.

## The Golden Thread

We often observe a gap between what technology makes possible and what professionals actually adopt. How can we ensure that AI becomes a “co-pilot” that elevates human judgment rather than a tool that fosters intellectual passivity?

The intelligent use of AI will require a significant and mandatory overhaul of the tools made available at work. To make adoption mandatory, we need to rebuild the toolkit so that AI is part of it. Believing it will be the only tool is utopian; integrating it alongside other tools, both old and new, is an essential step.

Training in AI is also something every person, in every field, has the right to receive. Learning, knowing, understanding — this is the beginning of a new era that must leave no one indifferent and must be offered to everyone.

In this way, yes, AI will become — as the computer did in its time — a tool that allows us to perform even better, without infantilizing us. We can clearly see that the line is thin; only honest and effective pedagogy will set us on the right path.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, Heritage, Future Of Work, Human Copilot, Henri Selmer Paris