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20 February 2020In small steps, artificial intelligence is making its way in Italy in the production sectors: the market - between software, hardware and services - in 2019 reached a value of 200 million euros, of which 78% commissioned by Italian companies and 22% as exports, notes the Politecnico di Milano in its report on AI. Values ​​still low if we consider the big names in the sector such as the United States, where, according to Market Research, the market will exceed 2.2 billion dollars by 2025.

Unexplored potential
"The value of 200 million euros for the AI ​​market in Italy represents only the beginning of a path, with a largely unexplored potential", says Alessandro Piva, director of the PoliMi Artificial Intelligence Observatory. Many Italian companies are in fact still in the process of approaching artificial intelligence. Just over half (53%) have adopted an 'exploratory approach' and study it to identify a business opportunity, while 47% have received a boost from the supply chain: not only from customers who require more innovative services and products, but also from technological suppliers and competitors.

The problems to overcome
According to the report, the main brake on starting an artificial intelligence project is the lack of skills, for 89% of organizations, followed by the availability of professionals with adequate training on the labor market (76%). There is no lack of compliance with privacy rules (70%), as well as the need to customize the offer on the market (53%), the identification of an offer that meets technological needs (49%) and acceptance by employees (47%).

"Italian companies are increasingly aware of the opportunity of this trend and are structuring themselves to create the conditions for sustainable and rapid project development: those that moved first are moving from experimentation to implementation or putting into production , many others are creating the enabling conditions, from the point of view of data management and knowledge of methodologies and algorithms, to undertake the path of adoption, "adds Piva.

The AI ​​market
Most of the expenditure for AI in Italy is devoted to software, followed by services. Expenditure on hardware, on the other hand, is still contained: companies tend to choose not to make direct investments in computational and storage hardware, also because most of the projects are still in the prototype phase. Among the various sectors, AI is particularly widespread in banks and finance (25% of the market), in manufacturing (13%), in utilities (13%) and insurance (12%).

The European framework
The picture examined by the Polytechnic of Milan concerns the Italian situation, but it is likely that the market may have a further push from the European Union: the Commission has in fact just presented the White Paper on artificial intelligence, with concrete proposals for an approach European to AI.

These are proposals that include strategies to incentivize investments to support and accelerate the adoption of AI also by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the 'backbone' of the Italian economy. The key to succeeding, in the intentions of the EU, will be found in the collaboration between the public and private sectors, which the Commission intends to promote in order to mobilize resources and create an "ecosystem of excellence", starting from research and innovation.

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