Integrating artificial intelligence in the enterprise: challenges and opportunities for CEOs and management

Easy to say, a little less so to put it into practice: paraphrasing the well-known proverb, and dropping it into the ever-widening binder in which the criticalities and opportunities linked to artificial intelligence converge, the task facing CEOs and management to adequately integrate this technology into the company is indeed a difficult one. Pierluigi Casale, lecturer at OPIT (Open Institute of Technology, an academic institution founded two years ago and specialised in the field of Computer Science) and technical advisor to the European Parliament for the implementation and regulation of AI, is among those who contributed to the definition of the AI Act, advising on security and liability aspects. His task, in short, is to ensure that the adoption of artificial intelligence (primarily within the parliamentary committees operating in Brussels) is not only efficient, but also ethical and compliant with regulations. And, of course, his is no easy task.

The experience gained over the past 15 years in the field of machine learning and his role in organisations such as Europol and leading technology companies are the requirements Casale brings to the table to balance the needs of EU bodies with the pressures exerted by American Big Tech and to preserve an independent approach to the regulation of artificial intelligence. A technology, it is worth remembering, that implies broad and diverse knowledge, ranging from the regulatory/application spectrum to geopolitical issues, from computational limitations (common to European companies and public institutions) to the challenges of training large-scale language models.

To our precise question on how CEOs and C-suite are 'digesting' AI in terms of ethics, security and responsibility, Casale did not shy away, framing the topic on the basis of his own career path. "I have noted two trends in particular: the first concerns companies that started using artificial intelligence before the AI Act and that now have the need, as well as the obligation, to adapt to the new ethical framework in order to be compliant and avoid sanctions; the second concerns companies, such as the Italian ones, that are only now approaching this issue, often in terms of experimental and incomplete projects (the expression used is 'proof of concept', ed.) and without these having produced value. In this case, the ethical and regulatory component is integrated in the adoption process'.

In general, according to Casale, there is still a lot to be done even from a purely regulatory point of view, due to the fact that there is not total consistency of vision among the various countries and not the same speed in transposing indications. Spain, in this regard, is leading the way, having set up (by royal decree of 8 November 2023) a dedicated 'sandbox', i.e. a regulatory testing space for artificial intelligence through the creation of a controlled testing environment in the development and pre-commercialisation phase of certain artificial intelligence systems, in order to verify compliance with the requirements and obligations of the AI Act and to guide companies towards a path of regulated adoption of the technology.

"The CEOs already working with AI," OPIT's expert goes on to explain, "see the investment in compliance as necessary, the latter as an opportunity: and it is precisely the latter, on paper, that have the advantage of also being able to define a strategy in terms of ethics and liability.