Italian companies invest in the strength of artificial agents

After the progress made with robot process automation technologies and traditional and generative artificial intelligence tools, the next evolutionary leap for Italian companies is represented by agent-based AI, i.e. autonomous systems capable of planning, acting and adapting proactively, collaborating with each other and learning from data. This is the clear conviction of Eva Terni, Managing Director Insights & Data at Capgemini in Italy, and it is related to a precise perception. "Italian companies," she explained to Il Sole 24 Ore, "are considering whether to develop solutions internally or adopt market models, depending on the level of customisation required, the sensitivity of the data and the desired competitive advantage. Despite the clouds raised by some analysts (those of Gartner in this case) regarding the likelihood of failure of agent-based AI projects, the road is in fact traced, even if we are only at the beginning.

A recent report by the Capgemini Research Institute ('AI in action: How Gen AI and agentic AI redefine business operations') confirms in this regard how artificial intelligence is no longer to be considered a laboratory experiment, but an already operational lever for reducing costs, increasing efficiency and transforming key functions such as supply chain and procurement, finance, human resources and customer service, with expected benefits in terms of lower operating costs of around 30%.

According to the research, 60% of organisations in Italy have already defined a roadmap for scaling AI adoption, supported by ROI metrics and solid use cases. The use of agents, although the interest shown is strong, is however still limited at the moment: only 1% of the very large companies in the Peninsula have already implemented these tools in their processes, while 43% are planning to adopt them within 2-3 years. The rest of the world, on the other hand, is further ahead and projects related to these tools are expected to grow by 48% by the end of 2025: as of today, 21% of companies with a turnover of more than USD 1 billion are already using agent-based AI solutions and multi-agent systems (almost double the percentage last year, when it was 10%), 16% plan to adopt them within the year, and a further 31% plan to use them in the next two to three years.

'These figures,' Terni further comments, 'confirm a strongly growing trend in Italy as well and indicate that the market is at a turning point. Companies that have so far experimented with a variety of independent use cases are preparing to industrialise solutions with a real impact. In order to do so, however, a change of mentality is required, and therefore rethinking processes, enabling new ways of working and adopting new technologies, as well as knowing how to manage data as a reliable and strategic asset'.

The transformation, as the report goes on to say, involves almost all sectors, albeit with different priorities. The evidence gathered in Italy shows that the industries with the greatest propensity to adopt Gen AI and agentic AI, albeit with implementations still at an exploratory stage, are manufacturing, hi-tech (where 45% of companies have already adopted agents), pharma & healthcare, energy & utilities and retail, Insurance and banks, as the Capgemini manager goes on to explain, are focusing on intelligent automation to reduce operating costs (cost savings in finance & accounting functions can reach 40%), simplify complex core processes and improve efficiency; the automotive and manufacturing industries in general are focusing on rapid innovation to accelerate the development of new products and optimise production, while in the consumer products sector, large-scale automation is aimed at improving the customer experience (thanks to the use of agents, an increase of up to 44% in customer satisfaction is estimated) and strengthening consumer loyalty. The road, as mentioned, is marked out and in a scenario that reflects a certain caution on the part of Italian companies, at least two other figures from the study are indicative. The first sees 52% of Italian companies having increased their budgets for Gen AI by 2025 (compared to 62% at global level), the second certifies the central role of hyperscalers as suppliers of the AI models adopted, with a percentage touching 87%, while only 1% of companies adopt hybrid approaches combining proprietary and open source models.