Verona, 9 February 2023 - First stop in Verona, with Confindustria Veneto and Confindustria Verona for the cycle of meetings 'Artificial Intelligence at the service of SMEs: use cases and areas for development', organised by Piccola Industria Confindustria and Anitec-Assinform, in collaboration with the Digital Innovation Hub network. This is a roadshow that over two years will touch all Italian regions with the aim of raising awareness and informing small businesses associated with Confindustria about the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. It will be the companies themselves that will tell of their experiences and strategies for using AI in the company, thanks to the presentation of concrete cases and direct discussion with the participants.  

Artificial intelligence, which has been discussed for more than 50 years, is today at the centre of the political-economic debate. Big data, high computational capacities and better performing algorithms enable its widespread use, capable of affecting the daily lives of companies and individuals even more profoundly than previous innovations. 

However, in spite of its potential, AI is still scarcely used by Italian companies, especially smaller ones: according to ISTAT data for 2021, only 6.2% of companies declared that they use artificial intelligence systems, compared to an average of 8% in the European Union; in particular, the percentage of small companies stands at 5.3%, compared to 24.3% of large companies. Positive, however, is the increase that, according to OECD data, venture capital investments, research and the number of talents related to artificial intelligence continue to register, although, again, much lower than neighbouring countries such as Germany or France.

 

According to Anitec-Assinform, the Association that groups ICT companies in Confindustria, the Artificial Intelligence market in Italy reached a volume of about EUR 422 million in 2022 (+21.9%) and, between 2022 and 2025, AI is expected to reach 700 mln in 2025 with an average annual growth rate of 22% (see Il Digitale in Italia 2022 v.2). Artificial Intelligence, together with other market enablers (Digital Enablers) such as Cybersecurity, Big Data and Cloud, will be an extraordinary driver for the development of the Italian digital market. Despite the positive outlook, the AI market in Italy is still less developed than in other more industrialised countries. For this reason, it is crucial to have a strategic vision that will accelerate and boost business investment, strengthen digital skills from school to the workplace, and increase awareness and knowledge of the potential of AI.

"Artificial intelligence applied to the enterprise, in the common imagination, is often associated with activities related to tech giants," said Giovanni Baroni, President Small Industry of Confindustria. "Instead, it is important to understand how this discipline is within the reach of all companies. In fact, it can be applied in every industrial reality, regardless of size, and ensure benefits in terms of lower costs and greater efficiency, while also contributing to the achievement of ESG criteria that are increasingly demanded by the market and investors. To seize this opportunity, however, it is necessary to support our SMEs in their digital transition," the SME leader noted. This is a complex process, involving interdependent technologies and above all skills, mental attitude and the ability to transform. In this context, then, Italy's backwardness in terms of professionals and students in STEM subjects is a gap that we can no longer afford and that risks weighing ever more heavily on the country's development and growth, depriving businesses of the human capital they need to be competitive'.  

Marco Gay, President of Anitec-Assinform, commented: Investment in digital transformation enablers, such as Artificial Intelligence, is vital for innovation, supporting business resilience and enabling new business models as well as transforming supply chains and ecosystems in all sectors. Digital Enablers, on the one hand, enable businesses to better understand and monitor processes and, on the other hand, to produce evolved products with new functionalities through deep integration between physical and digital. SMEs represent 99% of our entrepreneurial fabric, but they still invest too little in digital, with lower growth than other business segments: we must seize this moment and the opportunities of the PNRR to push the accelerator on innovation, to recover productivity points, strengthen our industrial supply chains, and remain industrial leaders in the world. We are convinced that starting from the territory, from direct and concrete confrontation between and with small and medium-sized enterprises, we can make a difference and encourage a conscious adoption of AI'.