Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the way businesses operate, but for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), technology alone is not enough. Successful digital transformation requires a clear strategy, sound financial planning and the ability to turn innovation into sustainable growth.
In this interview, Riccardo Italiano, Financial Advisor and Managing Director of Italiano & Partners, shares his perspective on how AI is transforming investment decisions, access to public funding and the competitiveness of Italian SMEs. He explains why the greatest challenge is not adopting new technologies, but building coherent, financeable and well-governed projects.
From industrial policy and the green transition to the AI Act, the Data Act and the future of public support schemes, Riccardo Italiano argues that innovation only creates lasting value when it is driven by strategy rather than by incentives.
Juliette Haller : Artificial intelligence is often presented as a technological revolution. From where you stand, supporting SMEs in their investment and financing decisions, has it also become an economic policy issue?
Riccardo Italiano : In my view, artificial intelligence is no longer just a technology. It has also become an economic policy issue.
When we support an SME, the point is never to use AI in the abstract. The point is to understand whether that company can become more productive, more efficient, more sustainable and more competitive.
Let me give a concrete example: if a company wants to invest in a new machine, a photovoltaic system, management software or an automation system, the issue is not simply buying the technology. The issue is building a project that makes sense from an industrial, economic and financial standpoint.
AI can help read data, simulate scenarios, analyse costs, consumption, margins and expected returns. But the broader question is different: how do we help SMEs avoid being left behind in the digital and ecological transition?
From this perspective, AI is a lever of industrial policy. It can increase the competitiveness of the productive system, but only if it is supported by skills, finance, public instruments and execution capacity.
Many SMEs are investing in digital tools, yet productivity gains often remain limited. Where do companies get it wrong ?
Riccardo Italiano : The main risk is treating the digital transition as a purchase rather than as a process.
Many companies think: I buy software, I integrate an AI tool, I digitalise a function. But if processes, data, people and objectives are not analysed first, there is a risk of adding tools without truly changing the way the company works.
In our work, we often see this when preparing business plans, financial dossiers or public funding applications. The company may have an interesting idea, but its data are scattered, processes are not properly tracked, management control is weak and the project is not yet readable for a bank, a public authority or a financial partner.
AI can be useful precisely here: not as a replacement for the entrepreneur, but as a tool to bring order. It can help summarise documents, analyse financial statements, build scenarios, compare assumptions and identify inconsistencies.
However, before technology, there must be method. An SME that does not properly understand its own numbers will find it difficult to use artificial intelligence effectively.
There is a lot of discussion about the ecological transition. In concrete terms, where do you see the connection between AI, energy and SME investments ?
Riccardo Italiano : The connection is very concrete.
When an SME evaluates an energy investment, such as photovoltaics, storage systems, energy efficiency measures, replacement of machinery or energy communities, the first question should not be how much the plant costs, but what the company’s real energy need is.
It is necessary to understand how much the company consumes, when it consumes, where it wastes energy, where the peaks are, which processes have the greatest impact, what savings can be achieved and how long it will take for the investment to pay back.
AI can help because it allows companies to work better with data: energy bills, consumption curves, production data, self-consumption assumptions, energy price scenarios and the impact on margins.
In our work, for example, when we discuss photovoltaic systems or investments linked to reducing consumption, the most important part is not only technical. It is economic and financial.
A green investment is truly useful for an SME if it also improves its cost structure, margins and ability to plan for the future.
Italy and Europe are supporting digitalisation and ecological transition through incentives, tax credits, European funds and public guarantees. From your point of view, are these instruments adequate ?
Riccardo Italiano : The instruments exist and they are important. I am thinking of national measures for digital and energy transition, tax credits, regional calls, European funds, instruments for internationalisation and public guarantees.
The problem, however, is that SMEs often do not only struggle to find the right instrument. They struggle to build the project.
In the work we do with companies, the question we often receive is: what funding opportunity is available? I believe the correct question should come before that: what investment makes sense for the company?
If an SME starts from the incentive, it risks adapting its project to the call. If, on the other hand, it starts from its strategy, then public funding becomes an accelerator.
This is even more true for AI, digitalisation and energy. It is not enough for an expense to be eligible. It must be useful, measurable, consistent with the business plan and sustainable even after the incentive.
Public finance works when it supports a clear industrial direction. It does not work when it replaces strategy.
What is the most common mistake you see when an SME seeks public funding for innovation, AI or energy transition ?
Riccardo Italiano : The most common mistake is starting from the funding opportunity instead of starting from the need.
I see this often: a measure is published and the company asks itself what it can buy in order to meet the requirements. But this approach can lead to weak investments, because the project is born from the incentive rather than from a real business need.
If a company wants to digitalise a process, it must understand which process it wants to improve, what data that process generates, who will use the tool, how much time it will save and what impact it will have on costs or revenues.
If it wants to invest in energy, it must analyse consumption, expected savings, economic return and financial sustainability.
If it wants to introduce AI, it must identify concrete use cases: document management, management control, commercial analysis, cost monitoring, quotation support or production support.
The funding instrument should finance a business decision that already makes sense. It should not artificially create the project.
From a legal and regulatory perspective, can regulations such as the AI Act and the Data Act be a burden for companies, or can they become a condition for building trust ?
Riccardo Italiano : In my view, they can become a condition for building trust, provided that the rules are understood and not simply suffered passively.
For an SME, regulation is often perceived as a cost: compliance, documents, procedures and responsibilities. However, in the case of AI and data, the legal issue is also a competitive issue.
If a company uses AI tools without understanding what data it enters, who processes them, where they are stored, what output the system produces and who is responsible for it, it exposes itself to serious risks. These risks are not only legal, but also reputational and commercial.
The Data Act and the AI Act should be read from this perspective: not as rules that are distant from the productive world, but as part of the infrastructure of the new digital economy.
In our work with companies, especially when building financeable projects or structured dossiers, regulatory compliance becomes an element of credibility. An innovative project is stronger if it is also well governed: data, responsibilities, security, contracts, suppliers, privacy and traceability.
Innovation without rules risks being fragile. Regulation, if applied well, can increase the trust of banks, partners, clients and investors.
European industrial policy sets ambitious objectives for AI, digitalisation and sustainability. What is the advisor’s role in turning these priorities into projects that SMEs can actually implement ?
Riccardo Italiano : I believe that today the role of the advisor is precisely to translate.
On one side, there are the major policy directions: artificial intelligence, digitalisation, ecological transition, data security, European competitiveness and energy autonomy. On the other side, there is the concrete life of SMEs: turnover, margins, suppliers, banks, employees, energy costs, tax deadlines and investments to be planned.
The risk is that there is a huge distance between these two worlds.
A company may hear about AI, European funds, Transition 5.0 or sustainability, but then it needs to understand what to do on Monday morning: which documents to prepare, which data to collect, which investment to choose, which supplier to evaluate, which financial measure to use and what return to expect.
In our work, we try to do exactly this: transform a general theme into an operational project.
For an SME, innovation becomes real when it enters a plan: objectives, numbers, timing, responsibilities, financial instruments and execution capacity.
If you had to identify one economic policy priority to help Italian SMEs succeed in the twin digital and green transition, what would it be?
Riccardo Italiano : I would focus on one point: transforming incentives into more integrated pathways.
Today, an SME that wants to innovate often has to put together many different pieces: consulting, technology, training, energy, finance, bank credit, guarantees, public calls and regulatory compliance. The risk is that the company gets lost in complexity.
We need instruments that are able to support not only the purchase of an asset, but the entire pathway: initial diagnosis, project design, investment, training, measurement of results and access to finance.
In my work, I see that SMEs do not only need grants. They need to be supported in building solid projects.
The digital and ecological transition will not be achieved through a single incentive. It will be achieved when companies are able to connect innovation, sustainability, numbers, people and finance.
AI can be an important tool, but the real objective is to make SMEs more competitive, more efficient and more capable of facing the future.
Editorial note: Interview transcribed and lightly edited for readability.
A French version of this interview is available for our French-speaking readers
Una versione italiana di questa intervista è disponibile per i nostri lettori italiani
Master’s student in Digital Economy Law | M2 Droit de l’Économie Numérique
