For a number of years, theOECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has been establishing a working table to promote digital diffusion among small businesses.
This year we were also invited to think about the topic by bringing our contribution to the topic of the impact of generative artificial intelligence. We are especially proud of this invitation because it confirms international interest in innovative forms of promoting technological innovation in small business and territories.
What emerged from the working day in Paris?
Data from the OECD say the impact of generative AI will be particularly important in the area of marketing and business communication. The data say that businesses are aiming to develop sales and broaden their customer base through automation of content and customer relationship management processes. Businesses that know how to do their trade well (in manufacturing as well as in services) are looking to generative AI as a lever to facilitate those operations that have always been their Achilles' heel-namely, the ability to communicate what they know how to do with passion and quality.
How to facilitate the adoption of these tools?
The use of proprietary or open source chatbots is already a reality in many small businesses that have taken advantage of the ease of use of these services to initiate a change in the way they work. It is imaginable that in the coming months a plurality of practitioners will contribute to enhancing access to LLMs through applications focused on specific use cases so as to make access to the technology more productive. On this front, panelists expressed a focus on the development and growth of true ecosystems that can connect businesses, universities, schools and the service world.
Digital hubs, in their different variants, are important in promoting technology. Their success, however, depends on their ability to fit into a wider network of actors who must compete to make technology easier to approach, easier and obviously more useful. The Upskill 4.0 case was invited precisely to testify to the potential of connections between education (ITS and universities) and small and medium-sized enterprises and the importance of stimulating these relationships through methodologies capable of generating change and innovation.
There are, of course, risks related to the safety and reliability of the tools. For now, an experiment-oriented attitude prevails to capture the most promising aspects of the technology. The issue of regulation is a recurring theme among decision makers at the international level (not only European). The issue of promoting strategic projects at the national and European level to accompany the effort of companies and to foster the creation of truly effective ecosystems remains open. One example is the open source project Mistral recipient of growing interest among investors and startuppers. Will we do the same in Italy?
