A Zone Entirely Dedicated to AI

Milan is not deterred by the troublemakers who have tried to tarnish its image. It is looking to the present and future of the business. Guido Guidesi, Regional Councillor for Economic Development, has brought his vision for growth through Innovation and Development Zones to the Lombard capital: “It is a strategy born out of a desire to harness the strengths and expertise of Lombardy’s regions, bringing together businesses, universities and research centres to strengthen the competitiveness of the entire production system. With the new Innovation and Development Zone (ZIS) in the Milan area, we are continuing a process aimed at creating a manufacturing cluster for artificial intelligence, promoting technology transfer and supporting businesses in tackling the challenges of the future.” Phase two of the Innovation and Development Zone dedicated to AI, known as “Officina AI”, is launching in Milan.

Promoted by Assolombarda, the current lead organisation. The centre will be based at the MADE Competence Centre, which will act as the hub and managing body. The confirmation that the public-private partnership – which currently brings together 19 partners to support businesses, particularly SMEs, from the launch of AI projects right through to their industrialisation – is the key to success. “We will turn our region into an AI factory,” says Alvise Biffi, president of Assolombarda, “because we do not want to limit ourselves to simply adopting the technology: we want to help build it, starting with physical AI, where our manufacturing and mechatronics sectors offer a unique advantage in Europe. Within Assolombarda’s Quadrilatero, industry generates more than 44 billion in added value annually – a full 45 per cent of Lombardy’s total and 11 per cent of the national total. In less than two years, the proportion of our companies with AI projects has risen from less than one in five to one in two. But the gap between large companies and SMEs remains wide, and this is where the ZIS must make a difference. “ZIS is proof,” concludes Biffi, “of how Greater Milan knows how to work as a system: institutions, universities, large companies, start-ups and training organisations all working together in a public-private partnership.”

“For businesses, and for SMEs in particular, the question is no longer whether AI works, but how to integrate it into processes and make it deliver measurable results,” comments Marco Taisch, president of MADE – Competence Centre Industry 4.0 – It is during this transition, from pilot project to industrialisation, that MADE will make its expertise available to the newly established Innovation and Development Zone. We will do so by building on what we do best: our demonstration factory, where companies can see the technologies in action before they even invest; secure experimentation environments, such as those at the Italian AI-MATTERS node, which we coordinate; and training programmes tailored to businesses’ needs. ‘Officina AI’ forms part of an ecosystem we are building, together with Assolombarda and other prestigious institutional partners, to make Milan one of the world’s AI capitals.” A vast network of expertise that includes forgIA, AI4I and Euro-FMX, one of the European Commission’s two flagship projects. All of this is of the utmost importance, because no technology – least of all AI – proves useful without people capable of managing it and without contexts capable of enabling it. “Thanks to Assolombarda, the universities involved and all our partners, ‘Officina AI’ has what it takes to become the place where innovation ceases to be a promise and becomes everyday practice in the region’s factories.”

Regarding the concerns surrounding the establishment of the data centres required for AI (whilst the Region is already working on amending the recently passed law), Taisch explains: “We must envisage a manufacturing supply chain where, alongside physical raw materials, we now have a new raw material at our disposal: data, which must be produced, processed and delivered to those who need to use it – our businesses. We cannot expect to have a strong manufacturing sector without strong, securely managed data centres. Today we talk about critical raw materials and then we worry about ensuring sovereignty in Europe and in Italy so as not to depend on other non-European countries, but in the same way, we must also apply the same criterion of sovereignty to data.”