Skills, businesses and networks to support innovation
Turning ideas into value. Companies and experts agree: ‘We need a well-trained workforce. AI only generates value when put into practice; managers play a key role.’
Skills, technology transfer, innovation infrastructure and regional networks in fostering collaboration between the various players in the innovation ecosystem and creating the conditions for sustainable development. What is needed today to move from idea to market is a recipe with multiple ingredients: from the launch of a start-up to collaboration with the industrial sector, from access to markets and financial resources right through to the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence to accelerate innovation in products, services and processes. These are the themes at the heart of the third leg of the Roadshow organised by 4.Manager, in partnership with the Il Sole 24 Ore Group, dedicated to corporate culture.
For whilst it is true, as Nicolò D’Amico, CEO of Prismed, pointed out, that ‘turning a technological insight into an industrial enterprise means tackling challenges that go far beyond innovation: from protecting intellectual property to building a team, from research to clinical validation, right through to market entry and scalability’; it is equally true, as Luigi Rizzolo, President of Sicindustria, highlighted in a statement, that ‘for innovative ideas and insights to translate into growth, businesses must not be left to face these challenges alone. We need an ecosystem capable of connecting businesses, start-ups, universities and research centres, and conditions that foster investment, expertise and technology transfer. Hosting this meeting at Sicindustria means precisely this: helping to strengthen these connections and create new opportunities for Sicily’s manufacturing sector’.
Yesterday in Palermo, there was an opportunity to discuss the factors that fuel the innovation ecosystem and the pathways that underpin the development of new business ventures and the competitive growth of enterprises. The event was hosted, hosted by Sicindustria, during the latest leg of the roadshow dedicated to corporate culture, organised by 4Manager and the Il Sole 24 Ore Group.
The starting point, as emphasised by Antonio Ferraro, Deputy Vice-President of Federmanager Sicilia Occidentale, is that ‘the true technological revolution of the coming years will arise from the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing: two complementary technologies, capable of mutually amplifying each other’s potential and opening up unprecedented possibilities for innovation and business competitiveness. Preparing for this today means investing in skills, experimentation and strategic alliances, so that SMEs too can turn this revolution into concrete opportunities for development’.
This is particularly true in Sicily, where the picture is mixed. According to the Bank of Italy, by early 2026, 32 per cent of Italian businesses with at least 20 employees will be using artificial intelligence tools (up from 27 per cent in 2025), but only 5 per cent will be making intensive use of them. AI has made its way into businesses, but it is mainly used to optimise existing processes. In Sicily, the figure stands at 19 per cent, with its use concentrated on customer and supplier relations and administrative compliance. The average Sicilian business has 5.7 employees, compared with 9.7 in Italia (Bank of Italy, The Economy of Sicily, June 2026). According to Istat, in 2025, 16.4 per cent of businesses with at least 10 employees used AI, compared with an EU average of 20 per cent: 53 per cent among large firms and 16 per cent among SMEs. Also worth noting is a recent NBER study (Bick et al, ‘Mind the Gap: AI Adoption in Europe and the US’, 2026), which shows that explicit encouragement from management accounts for around 80 per cent of the adoption gap between Europe and the United States; training alone, therefore, is not enough.
