Italian firms using AI double in a year but still small minority
FILE PHOTO: Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of the words "Artificial Intelligence AI" in this illustration taken, February 19, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
ROME, Dec 15 : The number of Italian firms using artificial intelligence has doubled over the past year, a report showed on Monday, but the diffusion of the technology remains extremely low in an economy dominated by small and medium-sized businesses.
This year 16.4 per cent of firms with at least 10 employees have used some form of AI technology, the report by national statistics bureau ISTAT said, up from 8.2 per cent in 2024 and 5.0 per cent in 2023.
The 83.6 per cent of companies making no use of AI cited issues such as a lack of skills (58.6 per cent), unclear regulation (47.3 per cent), data protection concerns (43.2 per cent) and high costs (43.0 per cent).
About 14.8 per cent said AI was of no use to them, slightly higher than 14.3 per cent in 2023, ISTAT said. It did not give a figure for 2024.
Larger companies saw the sharpest increase in AI use.
Among firms with at least 250 employees the number who used AI over the last 12 months increased to 53.1 per cent, from 32.5 per cent in 2024. Among smaller firms usage increased to 15.7 per cent from 7.7 per cent.
Uptake was highest in IT services (53 per cent), video production (49.5 per cent) and telecoms (37.3 per cent).
The most common uses of AI were for text data extraction (70.8 per cent), generative AI for language and images (59.1 per cent) and speech-to-text technologies (41.3 per cent).
