2024 marks a turning point for the Artificial teacher data Intelligence (AI) market in Italy? which has reached a new record of 1.2 billion euros? recording a growth of 58% compared to 2023. These data were disclosed by the Artificial Intelligence Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Milan ? presented on February 6 during the conference entitled “Artificial Intelligence? and this is only the beginning”. This boom is driven above all by experiments that include Generative AI? which represent 43% of the overall value of the market. The remaining 57% is largely made up of traditional AI solutions.
Looking at the average expenditure per company?
the most advanced sectors in the adoption visibility into the unknown analytics of AI solutions are Telco&Media and Insurance? followed by Energy? Resource&Utility and Banking&Finance. However? there is also a strong acceleration in the GDO&Retail sector. The Public Administration? although still having a limited weight in the market (6%)? is growing rapidly with a rate above 100%.
While AI is now a consolidated reality in large companies? adoption in SMEs is still very limited. Only 7% of small businesses and 15% of medium-sized businesses have launched AI projects? often with objectives related to operational efficiency. Interest is nevertheless high: 58% of SMEs are following the topic closely? also thanks to the growing availability of low-cost and ready-to-use tools. However? a major obstacle is the immaturity in data management? which slows down the implementation of large-scale projects.
Italy lags behind Europe…
Compared to other European countries (France? Germany? Ireland? the Netherlands? the United Kingdom and Spain)? Italy is proceeding more slowly in adopting AI. 81% of large Italian companies have at least evaluated an AI project (against a European average of 89%) and 59% have an active project (against 69% in Europe)? placing it last among the nations analyzed. However? among companies that already use AI? one in four has projects that are now fully operational. An interesting fact is that 65% of large companies that have adopted AI are also experimenting with Generative AI? mainly to implement conversational systems to support internal operators.
… but for GenAI? Italy is among the first users in Europe
Our country is among the first in Europe b2b reviews for the adoption of ready-to-use Generative AI tools. 53% of large Italian companies have purchased licenses for tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot? surpassing France? Germany and the United Kingdom. Furthermore? 39% of companies using these tools have already seen an increase in productivity. However? 48% have not yet conducted a quantitative analysis of the impacts. Italian companies are aware of the risks associated with the uncontrolled use of AI: over 40% have implemented internal guidelines and in 17% of cases the use of unapproved tools has been prohibited? to avoid Shadow AI phenomena.
What applications are growing
Among the main AI applications in Italy? 34% of the market is represented by Data Exploration? Prediction & Optimization Systems projects (for example? demand forecasting systems or fraud identification). Text Analysis? Classification & Conversation Systems solutions follow (32%)? growing by 86%? thanks above all to Retrieval Augmented Generation systems. Finally? 17% of the market is occupied by Recommendation Systems? a sector in which Generative AI is taking on an increasingly relevant role.