Italy is making significant progress in artificial intelligence adoption, but it still trails Europe’s leading AI economies.

While investment is accelerating, structural weaknesses - from outdated IT infrastructure to fragmented data management - continue to slow the country’s transition from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment.

Those are among the key findings of the ServiceNow Enterprise AI Maturity Index 2026, produced in collaboration with ThoughtLab, which shows that Italy’s AI maturity score has climbed to 54 out of 100, up sharply from 33 a year earlier.

The improvement reflects growing corporate commitment to AI, yet industry experts argue that investment alone will not be enough for Italy to compete with Europe’s most advanced AI ecosystems.

Italy’s AI Maturity Improves, but Structural Challenges Remain

According to the report, Italian companies expect 21.4% of their IT budgets to be allocated to AI initiatives by 2027.

However, higher spending is not yet translating into comparable progress in digital transformation.

Several indicators highlight the gap:

  • Only 16% of organizations have replaced fragmented legacy systems with integrated digital platforms.
  • 73% continue to struggle with data quality, accessibility, or governance.
  • Just 14% have successfully integrated AI into workflows across different business functions.

The findings suggest that while Italian companies are investing more aggressively in AI, many still lack the digital foundations needed to fully capitalize on those investments.

To better understand Italy’s position within the European AI landscape, Money.it spoke with Ludovico Rossi, CRO and Co-Founder of Brickken, a Barcelona-based enterprise blockchain infrastructure and software platform, and Bruno Bertucci, CEO of RELM Insurance MENA, the Middle East and North Africa division of RELM Insurance, a specialist insurer focused on emerging technology risks.

Europe’s AI Leaders: UK, France and the Nordics Remain Ahead

According to Rossi, Europe’s AI leadership is concentrated in several regions, although each has built its competitive advantage differently.

“If you look at where the real momentum is, I would put the United Kingdom, France, and the Nordic countries at the forefront, although each has reached that position for different reasons. Spain is closing the gap faster than almost anyone expected. In recent benchmarks measuring business AI readiness, its score increased by around 4.6 points this year, almost matching the pace of France and the UK despite starting from a lower base”.

Why France and the UK Continue to Lead AI Innovation

Rossi highlighted France’s success in developing domestic AI champions while strengthening sovereign AI infrastructure: “France has done an exceptional job of supporting homegrown champions such as Mistral AI while continuing to invest in sovereign AI infrastructure, giving the country genuine credibility on the global stage”.

The United Kingdom, meanwhile, remains “one of Europe’s strongest hubs for AI research, talent, and venture capital”, continuing to attract substantial public and private investment into frontier AI technologies.

The Nordic countries also stand out thanks to their highly digitalized economies, since their “high levels of digitalisation mean that businesses and governments are deploying AI at scale rather than simply talking about it”.

Spain’s AI Rise Is Becoming Europe’s Quiet Success Story

Perhaps the biggest surprise is Spain.

Rossi describes the country as “Europe’s quiet success story”, pointing to a clear national AI strategy and the growing attractiveness of Barcelona and Madrid as destinations for AI startups and international talent.

His personal experience reinforces that view:

“Living in Barcelona myself, I can see this firsthand. The city is full of AI talent, and artificial intelligence comes up in virtually every serious business conversation I have here”.

More broadly, Rossi believes the European Union is increasingly focusing on building the infrastructure necessary to compete globally.

“The European Commission’s investments in AI Factories, supercomputing capacity, and industrial AI adoption show that Europe is increasingly focusing its efforts on building the infrastructure needed to compete over the long term, rather than relying solely on regulation”.

Italy Has the Talent—but Enterprise AI Adoption Must Accelerate

Asked where Italy fits into the European AI landscape, Rossi cautioned against simplistic rankings, since “AI can be measured in many different ways, depending on whether you are looking at research, investment, infrastructure, or business adoption ”.

Nevertheless, he believes the UK, France and the Nordic countries consistently perform well across all of those dimensions, while Spain, Germany and the Netherlands form a strong second tier that is rapidly advancing.

Italy, he argues, has the potential to join that group: “The country has never lacked talent and already hosts one of the EU’s AI Factories under the EuroHPC programme. That demonstrates the capability is there."

The biggest challenge is execution: “It is business-level implementation that still needs to catch up”.

Rossi also notes that countries ranking lower in AI adoption often face even wider implementation gaps, combined with smaller technology ecosystems and more limited access to private capital.

According to Eurostat data, he explains, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria remain at the bottom of the EU-27 rankings for enterprise AI adoption, with single-digit adoption rates, compared with an EU average that has already reached 20%.
“However, that gap is already beginning to narrow. Competition from open-source AI models alone has reduced AI inference costs by around 95% in just two years”, he says.

Why Spain Is Outpacing Italy in Enterprise AI

Rossi believes the difference lies less in technical expertise than in business culture:

“Having lived and worked in both ecosystems, I believe Spain has built stronger momentum because companies have been more willing to experiment, investment has become more accessible, and there has been a genuine commitment to translating strategy into execution.”

He adds that Italy’s talent pool is not the issue, since “Italy has outstanding engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs ”.

He highligths that “the real difference is that Spain has created an environment where businesses are more willing to adopt emerging technologies early. Once that culture takes hold, innovation becomes self-reinforcing”.

RELM Insurance CEO: Europe Must Turn AI Experiments into Commercial Applications

Bruno Bertucci largely agrees with Rossi’s assessment, although he emphasizes that AI leadership depends on the metrics being used.

“Europe’s AI leaders depend on how progress is measured. The UK, France and Germany lead in investment, research and talent, while Denmark, Finland and Sweden are ahead in business adoption. Spain is currently outperforming Italy: 20.3% of Spanish companies used AI in 2025, compared with 16.4% in Italy”.

According to Bertucci, Italy’s economic structure partly explains the gap: “Italy has strong research and entrepreneurial talent, but its SME-heavy economy makes large scale adoption more difficult.”

He believes that “the next challenge is turning experimentation into reliable commercial use. This requires investment not only in technology, but also in skills, governance, cybersecurity and insurance against risks such as algorithmic errors, privacy breaches as well as professional liability”.

Can Italy Catch Europe’s AI Leaders?

Italy’s AI ecosystem is clearly gaining momentum, with rapidly increasing investment and improving enterprise readiness.

However, the country’s ability to compete with Europe’s AI leaders will depend less on funding alone than on its capacity to modernize digital infrastructure, improve data governance and accelerate enterprise-wide implementation.

While the UK, France and the Nordic countries continue to set the benchmark, Spain’s rapid rise demonstrates that focused national strategies, vibrant startup ecosystems and faster business adoption can significantly narrow the gap.

For Italy, the talent is already in place. The challenge is turning that potential into scalable AI deployment across the economy.