During the forum dedicated to new technologies, held in Turin on December 2, 2025, at Centro Congressi dell’Unione Industriali, the Manifesto "AI and (Re)Made in Italy ideas for new manufacturing", published on Il Sole 24 Ore on December 1, 2025, was presented. The authors of this lucid analysis of the state of health of the Italian companies and their development prospects thanks to artificial intelligence are Marco Bentivogli, politician and trade unionist, and Giuliano Noci, full professor at the School of Management of the Polytechnic University of Milan and chair of Strategy & Marketing. With Giuliano Noci, we delve into some of the most pressing issues, including those affecting the furniture sector.
With the Manifesto, you called for a profound transformation in the Italian manufacturing, the pride of Made in Italy and responsible for approximately 16% of Italy's GDP. Let's start with the analysis and objectives you've set.
Essentially, we wanted to invite the Italian industrial community to recognize that we are facing an unprecedented disruption brought about by artificial intelligence, which cannot be stopped and will undoubtedly help businesses as well as individuals. As the final stage of digital transformation, AI imposes a new business ontology and entails different value generation mechanisms that the industry must grapple with, or else it will decline. What we have achieved to date will no longer be sufficient, and success risks becoming a dangerous anesthetic. I always remember that in 2007, Nokia had a 43 percent global market share in telephony, and five years later, with the advent of the smartphone, it went bankrupt. In this sense, the Manifesto aims to be an electric shock for those businesses — and there are many of them — that lack awareness and an adequate sense of urgency regarding a powerful driver that is already present in our reality.
Considering the furniture industry, what are the most interesting fields of application for AI?
Furniture is the tangible embodiment of technical excellence in transforming wood into virtuous objects, particularly attractive to the market. In today's world, where the pervasiveness of digital technologies is increasingly significant, a new production cycle is crucial that, thanks to AI, work on the data chain to transform it into knowledge, analysis, forecasts, and actions.
Going into more detail?
Specifically, artificial intelligence can exponentially accelerate new product development projects. Starting, for example, from an analysis of a company's entire historical archive, AI can generate new hypotheses — starting points that don't replace human creativity, but can greatly assist in the preliminary analysis of a project and, once defined, in its engineering. As we state in the Manifesto, applications for predictive maintenance, quality control, cognitive automation and operator support, energy optimization, logistics, and decision-making are also applicable to every company, including furniture companies. Finally, new business models, and therefore revenue models, can emerge through a highly personalized approach.
From this perspective, what are the priorities for Italian manufacturing?
Companies must create their own "training grounds" for artificial intelligence applications because, while AI algorithms can be considered a commodity, the real fuel is data, which in Italy is still not sufficiently digitized. This requires creating infrastructures capable of collecting high-quality big data, without fear of putting one's knowledge in public. As our Manifesto states: "Knowledge that remains in the heads and hands of experts or in the gestures of workers is gold that does not shine for AI. No intelligent algorithm can use information that is not digitized, structured, and shared. Algorithms trained in Japan, the USA, or who knows where else will never have a grasp of Made in Italy if our data is not part of the game. And this will undoubtedly dilute the comparative advantage of a hundred years of Made in Italy tradition.
Among the priorities identified by the Manifesto are a national AI management literacy campaign, a new lifelong learning model, and the active involvement of the new generation of young digital entrepreneurs.
In this regard, a shift to the younger generations is essential. Digitally native young people, aged 14 to 18 today, are the only ones capable of grasping the significance of this change and must be involved in companies as soon as possible. The lack of skilled labor is a problem that cuts across all types of manufacturing, but entrepreneurs must realize that there is a significant gap between what companies demand and offer and what young people expect. The younger generations have their own value system to respect, in which work is a part of life and not total dedication, and they want clear training mechanisms and more meritocracy. If we also consider that salaries in Italy are among the lowest in Europe, it's understandable why young people are increasingly seeking opportunities abroad.
Digital transformation has also radically changed the customer experience. What is the role of the traditional point of sale today?
The physical touchpoint is important because it conveys the multisensory experience that certain products require, certainly including furniture. However, today it is conceptually incorrect to make distinctions because there is a unique market space that integrates physical and digital, where both dimensions play a necessary role thanks to their specific characteristics. Consumers now navigate with a frictionless logic, using their smartphone like a mouse that easily moves between two levels.
What are the consequences of this new dimension?
By combining the two spaces, the customer experience has been enriched and has become even more crucial. This is also demonstrated by the growing role of retail as a medium, an increasingly important communication channel for brands. Digital technology, as a powerful communication tool, can also be conveyed in physical space, where it is possible to capture attentional orientation and genuine interest in goods. Here too, the use of AI has infinite potential, as demonstrated by examples of advanced retail, especially in Asia, a digitally more advanced continent that we should look to with ever greater interest, especially considering that the European market is declining and that other EU countries with a significant manufacturing presence are also struggling.
Thinking about Europe, is it still the Old Continent, or has it irremediably become a Continent that is not ready to embrace AI?
As I stated in an editorial in Il Sole 24 Ore commenting the Digital Omnibus presented on November 19 by the European Union, regulations have become a "straitjacket that risks permanently weighing down any ambition to develop artificial intelligence on the Continent." This risks stifling any attempt at innovation, and this only serves to widen the gap between Europe and other advanced countries, first and foremost the United States and China.
Speaking of China, since 2011, you have been the Vice Rector of the Chinese Campus
of the Politecnico di Milano. At the time, Asia's largest country had a positive bias toward Italy and Made in Italy products. Are we still a symbol of superior quality?
The positive bias still exists, but the bar for its conversion into purchases has been raised. Certainly, a new national pride has emerged in recent years, and many local luxury brands have emerged that are increasingly appreciated. In general, and not just in China, there is still room for Made in Italy, but it requires the change of pace that only digital transformation can guarantee. If the Italian furniture industry embodies the sense of urgency we've discussed, I'm optimistic; if it plans to capitalize on what has been achieved to date, I'm very pessimistic instead.
