Imprese e Ai: una su cinque la adotta, ma l’industria fa il balzo più netto

Italian industry sees artificial intelligence adoption skyrocket, with one in five firms now utilizing AI solutions, according to a study by Unioncamere and Dintec. Over the course of a year, the number of manufacturing companies using AI more than doubled, with the share of businesses employing AI solutions rising from 13.1% in 2024 to 19.5% in 2025, a jump of more than six percentage points. This growth brings the Italian production system close to the threshold of one AI-using firm for every five.

Adoption of AI varies across sectors, with services leading the way at 25.9%, followed by industry, which saw the largest absolute increase in AI usage, moving from 6.2% to 13.6%, a 7.4-point jump. Within the industry sector, Italian companies leading in Made in Italy sectors such as fashion, automotive, interior design, and food processing led the way, with adoption rates rising from 3% in 2023 to 6.3% in 2024, and reaching 11% in 2025, nearly quadrupling the initial figure in just three years.

Other sectors also show growth, with commerce increasing from 13% to 13.9%, and agriculture growing from 5.2% to 8.1%. Three factors determine whether a company adopts AI or not: digital maturity, research and development capability, and openness to foreign markets. Digital maturity is measured by a score between 0 and 4, with AI-using firms scoring an average of 2.81 compared to 2.17 for non-users.

39.3% of AI-using firms have fully automated and integrated R&D functions, compared to 24.1% of others. 11.9% of export-oriented companies use AI versus 7.1% of those operating solely in the domestic market. Unioncamere general secretary Giuseppe Tripoli noted that AI adoption in Italy is still in the early stages, and smaller businesses require economic incentives, vouchers, experimentation labs, and training programs to help them adopt the technology.