Cloud and cybersecurity: vouchers for businesses are now available

The process has not been without its complexities. In November 2025, the Ministry for Enterprise and Made in Italy announced that the funds available for Transizione 5.0 had been exhausted, whilst leaving open the possibility of further applications subject to the availability of new funds. In the meantime, the framework for financial incentives has been amended once again, and since June 2026 the platform for the new support scheme for technologically advanced investments through hyper-depreciation has been operational.

However, given the succession of instruments, it is necessary to distinguish between budget allocations, earmarked funds, incentives actually granted and investments made. These are different measures, which, on their own, do not allow us to gauge either the number of businesses actually reached or the impact of the incentives on productivity and the uptake of technology.

The Digital Innovation Observatory for SMEs at the Politecnico di Milano provides an overview of the situation facing businesses. According to the 2025–2026 survey, 51 per cent of SMEs invest heavily in digital technology: 24 per cent across all areas of the business and the remaining 27 per cent selectively. On the other hand, 35 per cent invest little and 14 per cent do not invest at all. Among the reasons for this reluctance to innovate, 22 per cent of businesses consider digital technology to be of marginal importance to their sector, 9 per cent believe the costs outweigh the benefits, and 4 per cent struggle to understand the advantages.

However, the picture is not entirely negative. In 2025, more than one in two SMEs increased their spending on digital transformation compared with the previous year. And the cloud – which is at the heart of the new ministerial voucher scheme – is one of the areas on which companies are focusing their investments: 56 per cent of SMEs invested in these solutions during the three-year period 2023–2025. The proportion of businesses planning to invest during the period 2026–2028 stands at 91 per cent, according to the Politecnico survey.

The lag is more pronounced, however, when it comes to emerging technologies. 76 per cent of SMEs have not invested in, nor do they plan to invest in, artificial intelligence, whilst 91 per cent have not spent any money on, nor do they plan to invest in, blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality and quantum computing. Digitalisation is therefore proceeding at different speeds: on the one hand, there is the strengthening of infrastructure and management tools; on the other, the adoption of the most advanced technological applications remains limited.

Alongside investment, the question of the skills required to use new technologies effectively remains unresolved. According to the Politecnico Observatory, only 7 per cent of SMEs have introduced structured training programmes on artificial intelligence, and just 40 per cent draw up regular training plans for their staff, excluding compulsory training.

These difficulties are even more evident in smaller businesses. A second study by the Observatory, which was also extended to micro-enterprises with 5–9 employees, found that 70 per cent of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises do not have a structured training plan. Sixty-five per cent cite a lack of time as one of the main obstacles to training, whilst more than one in two rely exclusively on their own resources to fund it.

This is a factor that broadens the discussion on the effectiveness of incentives. The availability of financial support may encourage the purchase of machinery, software and digital services, but it does not automatically guarantee that businesses have the necessary skills and organisational structure to integrate them into their business processes.