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Elia Bonacina recounts the history of Bonacina 1889 in the company museum

Bonacina Learning Platform

Artificial intelligence to grow skills and corporate culture

Bonacina is an Italian company with over 135 years of history, a symbol of design and craftsmanship excellence. Founded in Brianza, it is internationally renowned for the quality of its natural materials and its design vision that combines expertise and experimentation.
Today, the company is expanding, with young teams, a growing sales network, and new creative collaborations. In this context, Bonacina has chosen to experiment with Upskill 4.0 and the potential of artificial intelligence to address a key challenge: effectively transferring culture and skills to new generations of employees.

80%
of Italian SMEs consider AI an opportunity, but only 15% actively use it.
Source: Artificial Intelligence Observatory, Politecnico di Milano, 2024.

Training and knowledge management
are among the areas with the greatest potential impact for the adoption of AI in SMEs.
Source: European Commission, AI Watch, 2023.

Capitalizing on and transferring corporate culture, know-how, and internal knowledge is crucial for all companies that make Made in Italy a competitive feature of their brand. Artificial intelligence can help organize and transmit content in different formats that can be used by employees.

The challenge

How can we effectively convey a cultural and technical heritage built up over more than a century?
How can we communicate with new recruits, often under the age of 30, using language, tools, and methods consistent with their way of learning?

The growth of a company like Bonacina involves accelerating onboarding and continuous updating processes. But the risk is losing touch with the company's core identity.
This is why there was a need to create a flexible, accessible, and engaging training tool that could tell the company's story and bring its values to life in an experiential way.

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The solution

With Bonacina Learning Platform, we have designed a tailor-made system that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate learning and consolidate internal know-how. A working environment where progress is measured not only in terms of major milestones, but also in terms of every daily step, a system that makes progress towards one's goals visible. The principles of game design—motivation, reward, and experimentation—can become powerful tools to help people develop their skills and talents over time.
This is not just a training tool: it is a strategic project that supports corporate identity, promotes cultural continuity, strengthens the sense of belonging, and contributes to the attractiveness of the company to new generations.

It is a concrete example of how Made in Italy can evolve by integrating advanced technologies in a way that is consistent with its history and vision.
A solution designed to be replicable in other SMEs that want to innovate while remaining true to what makes them unique.

Bonacina Learning Platform, prototype visualization on PC

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Notes

The ARTIGIANI 4.0 project is funded by the PR ERDF 21-27 of the Lombardy Region.

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