The international scenario is marked by a strategic instability that renders the decision-making process and long-term investment planning increasingly difficult. Uncertainty concerns not only markets and geopolitics, but also news and its origins. In this context, communication has ceased to be a support function: it has become a strategic lever, for businesses as well as for political balances, because the ongoing technological revolution redefines its tools and channels, directly impacting the balance of power among countries. Italian businesses must learn to manage that, both to seize opportunities and to defend their businesses. Indeed, value increasingly depends on intangible resources, primarily relational capital.
Artificial intelligence is the factor that is most accelerating this transformation. From agentic AI, applied to business-to-business and consumer relationships, we are now moving towards physical AI, meaning the translation of models into mechatronic hardware and industrial automation. Italy is not starting from scratch here: the combination of manufacturing capacity and innovation services makes the country a natural partner for turning technologies into applications. For such an advantage to translate into a strategic lever, however, hurdles such as access to raw materials and cybersecurity must be addressed. Corporate data sovereignty is also crucial: every company must govern and organize its data along its supply chain, with clear governance and rules for exchange. Only thus will the impact of technology on manufacturing be maximized.
On its own, in any case, AI cannot be an engine of competitiveness: it will be adopted across the board by the industrial sector and will change the conditions of all players, not just a few companies. This means that adoption in itself does not guarantee an advantage. Furthermore, productivity increases only if the entire corporate machine is reorganized. Crucial decisions from a corporate strategy perspective require a deep understanding of how artificial intelligence systems work: the slogan of the human in the loop alone is not enough. For young people, a training problem arises: if entry-level activities are performed by machines, the way skills and careers are built must also be rethought.
The very perspective on communication should change: the issue for businesses is no longer just what to communicate, but what information to receive in order to make strategic decisions. And for a system of small and medium-sized enterprises with lower technological skills, ensuring the quality of the information on which decisions are made matters more than the marketing apparatus. Also for this reason, knowing how systems are built matters: the algorithm is not neutral; it reflects the choices of those who write it and the context in which it operates. In such a framework, companies are called upon to develop their own algorithms built on their own know-how, leveraging the Italian ability to combine humanistic knowledge and technical-scientific skills.
Technology, information, and trust redesign the framework not only for economic actors but also for society, because information and democracy remain inseparable. Democracies are a minority in the world, and the media are an essential part of their infrastructure. Information is all the more credible the more sustainable it is, because a solid publishing company must not bend to improper logic. Trust in media operators is also built through other channels—training, community, entertainment—provided the levels remain distinct. In this framework, the accuracy of fact checking becomes decisive. After all, the expansion of information sources has not improved the public’s preparedness: algorithms tend to offer confirmation of pre-existing ideas rather than offering up new information, thereby creating bubbles and “echo chambers.”
The case of the United States offers a useful observatory. The midterm election campaign revolves around the economy: on one hand, the cost of living; on the other, the promise of tax relief. Television retains a central role, while AI has entered the political debate both for fundraising and for crafting and spreading messages. However, the electoral result will depend on structural factors, such as the redrawing of districts (gerrymandering), in a polarized country with few truly competitive seats. Consensus on tariffs and investments is also influenced not only by communication, but also by concrete results: the investments attracted have not improved the trade balance so far. For Italian businesses, the lesson is clear: in a context where promises are put to the test of facts, those entering the United States market must present simple, measurable, and sustainable advantages over time.
While the United States and China accelerate on AI, at the European level the challenge is to make a model competitive that brings together democracy, a market economy, and personal rights. Knowledge and critical capacity are needed, rather than narrow skills: learning how to learn and knowing how to evaluate the data produced by machines. AI is an extraordinary accelerator of processes, but if Europe does not learn to use it as such, it has no future. On the social front, the rebuilding of intermediary bodies and a stronger role for the third sector, also through tax incentives for transfers and legacies, can help rebalance a power that politics has progressively ceded to finance and Big Tech.