(Finance) – The use of artificial intelligence in Italian industry is growing. In absolute terms, compared to 2023, the number of companies using at least one of the AI technologies increases by 71%, recording the maximum variation for generative AI (+163.5%) and the minimum for AI useful for the movement of machines (+3.7%). This is what emerges from Istat report on businesses and technology, according to which the share of companies with at least 10 employees using AI will rise from 5% to 8.2% in 2024. An increase which, however, still does not close the gap with the EU average which is 13.5%.
The companies are making a significant step forward in the use of AI companies with 50-99 employees which stand at 14% (it was 5.6% in 2023). The share of large businessesnow at 32.5% from 24.1% in 2023. Among the economic activities that exploit it the most, IT is in first place (36.7%, it was 23.6% the previous year) telecommunications (from 18.1% to 27.6%), and cinema, TV and video (from 11.1% to 28.3%). 63% of these are companies located in the north of the country, a quarter in Lombardy and 13% in Veneto, with significant shares also for Lazio and Emilia-Romagna (around 9.5%), Campania, Piedmont and Tuscany ( between 8% and 6%).
Businesses mainly use AI for the extraction of knowledge and information from text documents (54.5%), generative AI of written or spoken language (45.3%) and the conversion of spoken language into machine-readable formats IT devices through voice recognition technologies (39.9%). This is followed by AI for the automation of workflows (28.1%), for the physical movement of machines (10.4%) and for image recognition (25.4%). Text analysis (text mining) and machine learning techniques (e.g. machine learning) are the two technologies most used by large companies (60.8% and 51.6% respectively), while for smaller companies the second most used technology is generative AI for the creation of written language (46.9%) which offers innovative solutions to automate processes, improve communication and personalize content.
The business areas in which artificial intelligence systems are most often adopted they are increasingly focused on marketing and sales (35.7%), organization of company administrative processes (28.2%) and innovative and research and development activities (24.6%). Compared to 2023, they also represent the areas in which the greatest increase in businesses is recorded (+84.5%, +142.5% and +98.7% respectively).
Observing companies by type digital investments already made or planned for the future two yearsit emerges that the majority of companies with at least 10 employees have already invested in 1 to 4 digital areas in the period 2021-2024 (52.6%) and approximately 38% intend to do so in the two-year period 2025-2026; instead, approximately half of large companies declare having invested between 4 and 7 areas in the past period (51.9%) and between 6 and 9 areas in the future (50.3%).