Despite economic uncertainty, Italian companies confirm the investments in digital. They consider this essential to maintain competitiveness. A research by the “Startup Thinking” and “Digital Transformation Academy” Observatories of the Politecnico di Milano attests to this. According to the forecasts, in 2025 the ICT budgets of the companies will increase, registering a growth of +1.5%. This trend is in line with that of the past nine years, albeit with a slightly lower growth rate than in 2023 (+1.9%). Small (+3.7%) and medium-sized companies (+4%) in particular contribute to the increase, while large companies are more stable.
“In a climate characterized by caution and limited growth, Italian companies confirm their intention to invest in digital, in order to identify solutions for the current challenges and seize new business opportunities – says Alessandra Luksch, Director of the Digital Transformation Academy and Startup Thinking Observatories of the Politecnico di Milano –. Companies and startups must now enter a new phase in the strategic valorization of the innovation, shifting the focus from the pure experimentation to the impact generation. For a full transformation, however, it is necessary to move from a model that mainly looks at short-term economic results to one that also evaluates medium– to long–term effects while also taking into account the impact on skills, culture and organizational agility”.
Top of the list is CyberSecurity
Among the most structured organizations, the digital spending focuses (as it has for several years) on CyberSecurity systems (57%) and Business Intelligence and data visualization solutions. But Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing and Machine Learning solutions rise to third place. 43% of companies will invest in these areas as a priority, a big growth like for Generative AI.
Among SMEs, Cybersecurity (31%) ranks first, then Cloud migration and management (25%). Industry 4.0 applications and technologies follow (24%).
Besides, in almost all large companies (92%) digital innovation is now present in the Strategic Plan, but it is the main lever only in 5% of cases. Slightly more than half (56%) have formalized a strategy dedicated to digital and it has been shared widely throughout the entire organization only in 38% of cases.
Only 8% of companies have established metrics to comprehensively assess the impact of digital innovation activities. They mainly measure economic inputs and outputs and in the medium-short term. Measurements of the impact of digital in enriching corporate culture and disseminating skills or know-how that can more fully define the contribution in the long run are still not widespread.
Internal and external sources of innovation
In 2024, 88% of large Italian companies had initiated open innovation practices. If the main drivers for innovation in the organizations are still internal (Corporate Functions for 37% and Top Management for 32%), a shift toward external sources and the reshuffling among them is underway. Startups are increasingly prominent. They are used as sources of external innovation by 27% of companies, after universities and research centers (31%), consulting firms (31%), and ICT vendors and sourcers (27%). Nearly half of Italy’s large companies have had some kind of collaboration with innovative startups for more than three years.
