2024 Technology Forum

"With Generative AI we can create a new concept of man-machine interaction and generate a potential impact of 312 billion euro in Value Added for Italy. The financial sector, with the ICT, is the one that might be more affected by the implementation of AI technologies, with an esteemed productivity growth of 26.7%."

Corrado Panzeri, Partner and Head of InnoTech Hub, TEHA

"The largest democracy of the Western world needs to have holistic policies. Regulations are not enough. Trying to balance this is not simple, it’s the struggle of the institutions. And, of course, it’s a teamwork, and also depends on how much the productive sector reacts to the injections of innovation."

Roberto Viola - General Director, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (AI, HPC), European Commission

"Digital transformation is dead. We never really did invest in it, if anything, we invested in digitization. We took existing processes, old systems, and we modernized them. There is nothing wrong with that, efficiency is a big priority. But you can’t run tomorrow’s business with yesterday's operating model."

Brian Solis - Digital Anthropologist, Futurist, Thought Leader

"We talk about AI as a standalone, but in my world is a robot together with AI and a vision system that gives the robot eyes. The interesting things happen when you start doing these three things together. Robots will also come into new sectors with the help of machine learning."

Marina Bill – Head of Global Marketing & Sales, ABB Robotics; President, IFR - International Federation of Robotics– Head of Global Marketing & Sales, ABB Robotics; President, IFR - International Federation of Robotics

"We have the opportunity to look ahead in the future long enough so we can make the best possible decision. These are living dynamic systems that are seeking out our goals and learn to live with the failure and the constant change. Rather than just hope that the next generation of technology will be beneficial, let’s talk about doing what is necessary to be able to actually prove it."

Kirk Bresniker - Chief Architect, Hewlett Packard Labs; Fellow and Vice President, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

"Italy is a country with an aging population, and soon there might be more retired people than workers. In this scenario, AI may help to keep up the productivity, but it has to be adopted responsibly and we need to boost our population’s digital skills to adopt this technology in a way that benefits us."

Massimo Proverbio - Chief Data, AI and Technology Officer, Intesa Sanpaolo

"Space cloud is going to be the enabler of communication between satellites. Having an on-premises capacity of data elaboration in space removes latency issues and can dramatically improve our geospatial analysis, which is good for making predictions in many areas, for example climate change."

Simone Ungaro - Chief Innovation Officer, Leonardo

"Transport is a reflection of the economy: if one grows, so does the other. What we have been trying to do in the EU is to disentangle the growth in emissions from the growth in transport. To do it in an economically viable way, we need to allow innovation to transform transport across all related sectors, and support them in reaching the common targets. We need a symbiotic approach between tradition and cutting-edge technologies, which can be easily found in Italy’s economy."

Filip-Alexandru Negreanu-Arboreanu - Head of Cabinet, EU Commission for Transport

"Today we have challenges, and challenges require innovation. We are living in the Silicon Age, and this era’s disruption will be related to materials. We see emerging materials systems and new “mining” approaches, which will be strongly leveraged by Generative AI."

Gianaurelio Cuniberti - Chair of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) and the Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials in Dresden

"In 10 years there will still be 85 universities that do training, research and public engagement with the territory in Italy? It depends on us. Universities are at the forefront of the change process of this country. Italy must invest in research, human capital training and innovation, and universities and companies must network to create a critical mass of researchers. Let us design the future we want together, where culture, science and universities are at the heart of our future."

Giovanna Iannantuoni - Dean, University Milano Bicocca; President, The Italian Rectors' Conference