Artificial intelligence, plans for only one in four companies

Italian companies are opening the Artificial Intelligence worksite, but the problems are not few. Entering the new world is full of uncertainties: the lack of new skills, the difficulty of technological transformation and, finally, ethical and legal issues. A new paradigm all to be built even in business models. But what use can Artificial Intelligence be to a company? It can accelerate knowledge of market trends with predictive analysis or help make the right decisions. Then there is the issue of automation governance through to personal service management and resource optimisation. If the site has only just opened, it is physiological that many have started but many others have not. Thus the report produced by Minsait and the Luiss Guido Carli University, which will be presented today at the Viale Pola Campus in Rome, tells how only one company in four has defined a development plan.

Most companies still do not know how to apply Artificial Intelligence in their business development. Delay or uncertainty in facing the new revolution? 'In fact, the data that emerges after having surveyed more than 500 companies from different sectors,' explains Roberto Carrozzo, head of intelligence and data at Minsait Italia, 'is that most do not have plans to integrate this technology into their business. Basically, the problems holding back innovation seem to be of two types. "The first," Carrozzo continues, "concerns skills, i.e. the difficulty of establishing pools of data analysts and soft engineering within companies.

The second issue, on the other hand, is related to the technological infrastructure, which in some ways is surprising: 'We have realised that companies would prefer to equip themselves with their own means, but this takes a long time and also requires larger investments. In fact, relying on external shared IT services such as clouds is still not considered cost-effective, probably especially in terms of security. But this is a brake that risks being decisive with respect to a prospect of competition, including international competition.

Irene Finocchi, director of the course of studies in Management and Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, explains how one of the report's surprises is that the false start of artificial intelligence for businesses is not a problem of investment, 'the money to start this process of change seems to be there and there is also a sensitivity to data analysis'. Rather, another critical element concerns 'the regulatory uncertainty that still surrounds this sector, many do not know how far they can go and what they are allowed to do'. This is in the face of a European Ai Act that has yet to find a legislative definition in our country. If the United States has embarked on a path devoted to more experimentation and China, while investing a great deal, clearly has a dirigiste approach, 'there remain broad ethical and legal issues that have not yet been resolved'.

Then, returning to the subject of skills, Professor Finocchi emphasises that the need for companies 'is to find staff who are not only trained from a technical point of view, which is still very important, but who know how to link artificial intelligence to the world or the sector in which they operate. A data scientist working in a bank, for example, needs to be able to link the reading of data to financial and economic issues. "Therefore, the universities' particular game is to create degree courses that have multidisciplinarity as their founding characteristic. This is why Luiss, in addition to the three-year degree, has also put in place the master's degree in Data Science and Management'.