On October 22, 2025, the’AT THE OPERATIONS FORUM, a strategic event that confronted Italian industry on the issues of sustainability and digitization. The highlight was the presentation of the research results “What's Next in Operations? Benchmarking Study.”.
As a testament to the importance of the issues discussed, Il Sole 24 Ore devoted an in-depth article to the research presented, highlighting the gap between Italian excellence in sustainability and lagging behind in the digital transition.
Italian industry is efficient and growing, but shows a worrying flaw in the readiness to use digital technologies. The research, on a sample of more than 100 companies, paints a two-speed picture. Italian companies show strong maturity in sustainability, whose index reached an excellent 89%. In contrast, digitization is the lagging component, standing still at 48 % and representing the greatest potential for development.
CEO Michele Bonfiglioli reiterated that. adoption of AI and innovative technologies is an indispensable lever for competitiveness and resilience, and that such a gap is no longer permissible. 53% of executives admit a low level of digitization in their organization.
The article in Il Sole 24 Ore Highlights the link between digital lag and poor integration of artificial intelligence (AI): 55% of companies have not yet implemented AI, only 3% use it in an established way, Generative AI is integrated in only 9% of processes.
The main barriers to digital adoption are not cost, but lack of in-house expertise, data quality, and integration with existing systems. The main crux concerns practical application: achieving significant benefits requires significant investment in training, time and technological infrastructure.
The full article, offers a comprehensive analysis on investment strategies, data on popular technologies (ERP, CRM, MES) and implications for business competitiveness. Read the full article in The Sole24Ore of October 23, 2025.
Here you can find the article published in the Technology Digital Economy from Il Sole 24 Ore
