ContextOpening remarks by Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Bank of Italy, at a conference organised by the Bank of Italy and the European Investment Bank, Rome, 2 July 2026.
Why it mattersThe Bank of Italy Governor on financing innovation and on protecting workers exposed to AI.
- AI benefits may concentrate in few firms, sectors or regions.
- Workers exposed to AI need support.
- Innovative investments are risky and hard to finance.
- Invest in skills and support exposed workers.
- Develop patient finance, risk capital and deeper markets.
- Channel capital to firms that turn research into products.
Read the speech summary
1. AI as a lever for productivity
Opening a conference with the European Investment Bank, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta said AI has already entered production, services, research and daily life, with new agent models and portable devices lowering costs and speeding adoption. Broad and timely diffusion could revive Italian productivity, especially in manufacturing, where it can prevent equipment failures, cut waste, optimise energy and materials, speed design and improve quality, and also in medicine through faster diagnosis and new treatments.
2. Managing the transition and financing it
Because the pace of change is high, the transition must be prepared: invest in skills, support the most exposed workers and avoid concentrating benefits in a few firms, sectors or regions, in the spirit of calls by Pope Leo XIV and President Mattarella that AI serve people and the dignity of work. The investments it needs are largely intangible, such as research, software, data, skills and organisation, which are risky and slow to pay, so long-term lenders, venture funding and broader capital markets are essential. Italy and Europe have savings, research and firms but too rarely bring them together at the scale required.