AI & Data Summit Milan
Unlocking the Power of Data and AI
Building Intelligence that Creates Real Value
The IDC AI and Data Summit is the premier event for senior technology and business executives shaping artificial intelligence and data strategies across Italy. Designed for CDOs, Heads of Data, and AI and innovation leaders, this full-day event delivers strategic insights and practical frameworks aligned with Italy’s national priorities: AI-driven industrial modernization, digital sovereignty, ethical and human-centric innovation, and data governance excellence.
Italy is fast becoming a key player in Europe’s responsible AI landscape, guided by the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, and a growing commitment to sustainable, transparent, and sovereign digital innovation. As organizations expand AI adoption in 2026, they face complex challenges: ensuring compliance with the EU AI Act, addressing data quality and governance issues, and modernizing fragmented infrastructures to support scalable, trusted AI.
Agenda
IDC research shows that 29% of European enterprises cite data quality and availability as their top barrier to realizing AI’s value, while over 90% share data externally but only 30% do so strategically. In Italy, these findings highlight the urgency of developing trusted data ecosystems, interoperable platforms, and robust governance frameworks that foster innovation while safeguarding privacy, accountability, and ethical standards.
Through keynotes, executive panels, and peer discussions, participants will gain the insights and tools needed to transform AI and data into pillars of Italy’s next wave of innovation, resilience, and digital competitiveness.
2026 Prediction
By 2027, organizations that adopt tools and processes for AI evaluation and monitoring will have the confidence to deploy AI applications twice as fast as those that don’t.
Main Themes
Data Value Reinvention in the Age of AI
Organizations are shifting from thinking about “using AI” to “leveraging data for AI value,” integrating data maturity practices like cataloging, lineage, and observability to fuel model performance and business impact.
Business Value and ROI from AI & Data
Translating AI and data experiments into measurable business outcomes demands clear KPI frameworks, strong business cases, and scalable use cases tied to financial value.
Trust, Transparency and Responsible AI
Embedding fairness, bias mitigation, auditability, and explainability across the AI lifecycle helps build user confidence, regulatory alignment, and long-term trust in intelligent systems.
Data Sovereignty, Governance and Interoperability
Balancing data residency, regulatory constraints, and cross-border flow requires hybrid cloud strategies, shared governance models, and interoperable architectures that meet business needs.
Generative and Agentic AI: The Next Frontier
As generative and agentic models go beyond assistance, leaders focus on guardrails, cost/risk trade-offs, hybrid model design, and alignment with existing AI systems.
Infrastructure Evolution: Edge, Cloud and AI Platforms
Deploying AI at scale depends on modern, flexible infrastructure spanning edge and cloud, optimized for latency, throughput, cost, sovereignty, and workload distribution.
2026 Prediction
In 2026, a renewed focus on traditional AI for explainability and reliability will drive 70% of organizations to adopt composite AI, blending generative, prescriptive, predictive, and agentic technology.
Our partners
Mauden | IBM
Datadog
QLIK + AWS
snowflake
Snowflake delivers the AI Data Cloud — a global network where thousands of organizations mobilize data with near-unlimited scale, concurrency, and performance. Inside the AI Data Cloud, organizations unite their siloed data, easily discover and securely share governed data, and execute diverse analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single and seamless experience across multiple public clouds. Snowflake’s platform is the engine that powers and provides access to the AI Data Cloud, creating a solution for data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and data sharing. Join Snowflake customers, partners, and data providers already taking their businesses to new frontiers in the AI Data Cloud.
Celonis
Celonis makes processes work for people, companies, and the planet. Celonis is the trusted platform to industrialize Enterprise AI, empowering organizations to analyze, design, and operate AI-driven processes. The Celonis Platform is powered by the Celonis Context Model, which combines process data, business knowledge, and intelligence to create a living digital twin of the enterprise that AI can understand — turning AI’s operational blind spots into operational clarity. No other platform brings together Process Mining, Process Intelligence, Decision Intelligence, and Digital Twin of the Organization (DTO) technology to make AI work. Industry-leading companies around the world trust Celonis and its global ecosystem of partners to make their AI agents, people, systems, and processes work together, achieving transformational outcomes.
HPE
Wasabi Technologies
Wasabi is on a mission to store all the world’s data by making data storage simple, affordable, predictable, and secure. If you have data to store, whether it’s backups, medical images, surveillance videos, financial data, multimedia, or scientific data, our pledge is to always be the cheapest, fastest, most secure and reliable cloud storage in the world. It’s all we do, and we do it better than anyone.
Target Reply
Technology Reply
ImpresaCity
Reportec
AIPSI
Assintel
Speakers
Roberta Bigliani
Group Vice President Global Lead for Industries
IDC
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Roberta Bigliani
Roberta Bigliani is a Group Vice President at IDC, and Global Lead for Energy Insights, Retail Insights, and the IDC Industry Hub.
She leads IDC’s global research, data, and custom delivery agendas for energy, utilities, and retail, and oversees the Industry Hub, which drives cross-industry initiatives and collaboration.
A recognized expert in industry and business transformation, with longstanding experience in energy and utilities, Roberta’s work centers on how AI and digital technologies are reshaping the industry – enabling new business and operating models, enhancing operations and customer experiences, and effectively integrating IT and operational technology.
Her work combines deep sector expertise with a cross-industry lens, helping organizations understand how disruption and innovation propagate across sectors and markets.
Roberta regularly advises senior managers and executives at both technology suppliers and end-user organizations, speaks at international conferences, and moderates executive-level discussions.
She is based in Milan, Italy.
Alessandro Perilli
Vice President, Research, AI Economics
IDC
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Alessandro Perilli
Alessandro Perilli is a Vice President leading the Agentic AI Platforms and Strategies research program. Alessandro’s core research coverage includes emerging AI technologies, global AI market trends, the state of enterprise AI, and sovereign AI.
Most recently, Alessandro founded Unstable Reality, an AI R&D lab in London, where he worked as Chief of Research, developing synthetic media generation solutions for creative studios, ad agencies, and large end-user organizations.
Among other projects, Alessandro published a weekly newsletter dedicated to tracking how AI is reshaping jobs, workforce productivity, and business operations.
Previously, Alessandro served as a senior leader at Red Hat, focused on business and product strategy. Across roles, Alessandro has also worked as an advisor to Fortune Global 2000 companies, helping IT decision makers translate emerging technology shifts into actionable and risk-informed strategies.
Throughout his career, Alessandro has often delivered keynotes at industry and vendor events, focusing on the state of the union and emerging trends in cybersecurity, virtualization, and cloud computing.
Carla La Croce
Research Manager Data & Analytics
IDC
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Carla La Croce
Daniele Natali
Presales Manager
Mauden
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Daniele Natali
Piergiorgio Grossi
Chief Innovation & Data Officer
Credem
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Piergiorgio Grossi
Monica Versino
Strategic Account Executive
Datadog
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Monica Versino
Giorgio Dossena
Senior Presales Manager
Qlik
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Giorgio Dossena
Cristina Pecchini
Responsabile Data Products &BI
PagoPA
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Cristina Pecchini
Rocco Michele Lancellotti
Chief Data & AI Officer
RCS MediaGroup
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Rocco Michele Lancellotti
Nicola Sandoli
Data Governance Specialist
Informatica from Salesforce
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Nicola Sandoli
Crescenzo Oliviero
Manager Solution Engineer
Snowflake Italia
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Crescenzo Oliviero
Riccardo Paganelli
Account Executive
Qlik
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Riccardo Paganelli
Marco Trezzi
VP, Global Head of Market Intelligence
Celonis
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Marco Trezzi
Fabrizio Degni
AI Ethics and Governance Researcher, IT and Digital Systems AI and Data Governance Manager, ENIA Scientific Commitee Member
WeBuild
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Fabrizio Degni
Fabrizio Degni is a distinguished AI Ethics and Governance researcher, technology evangelist, and President of the Italy Chapter for the Global Council for Responsible AI. Guided by his philosophy “Ask not if it can be done, nor how, but only if it should be done,” he is deeply committed to exploring technological frontiers while ensuring AI serves humanity’s common benefit through ethical, transparent, and accountable innovation.
Recent Recognition & Leadership: Degni was honored with the “Premio per l’Impegno Etico nella Cultura Algoritmica” (Award for Ethical Commitment in Algorithmic Culture) at the inaugural AI Awards Italy 2025, hosted by ENTE NAZIONALE per l’INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE – E.N.I.A.® in Milano. This prestigious recognition celebrates his commitment to education and critical reflection on algorithms, ethics, and AI governance. As President of the Italy Chapter for the Global Council for Responsible AI, he leads a growing community of 500+ members across 71 nations dedicated to shaping responsible AI through ethics, transparency, and accountability principles.
Professional Expertise: As Chief of Artificial Intelligence, Degni’s research focuses on sociotechnical risks introduced by emerging AI technologies, particularly AI agents and autonomous systems. His analysis of AI agent systems in IBM’s 2025 AI Ethics Report highlighted critical challenges of opacity, complexity, and non-reversibility in autonomous systems, contributing to frameworks for evolved governance models and ethical oversight.
Certifications & Credentials: Degni holds the AI CERTs™: AI+ Executive Certification (scored 90/100, May 2025) and specialized certifications from Stanford University (“AI Awakening: Economic and Society Implications”), edX (“AI Ethics for Professionals”), Copenhagen Business School, Microsoft, and Politecnico di Milano. His advanced credentials include ISO 42001:2023 AI System Management / ISO 9001 certifications and designation as a Certified AI Ethics & Governance Professional (CAEGP).
Thought Leadership: A frequent speaker and panel participant, Degni recently contributed to the “Alfabetizzazione e Innovazione” (Digital Literacy and Innovation) panel, discussing human and digital memory alongside leading experts. His work encompasses value alignment, bias mitigation, transparency, and actionable governance frameworks for AI implementation across multiple sectors.
Massimo Donna
Avvocato e Managing Partner, Head of the Technology Group
Paradigma, Law & Strategy
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Massimo Donna
Carlo Vaiti
Distinguished Chief Technologist Officer
HPE
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Carlo Vaiti
Carlo Vaiti ricopre il ruolo di Distinguished Chief Technologist Officer (CTO). In qualità di CTO, Carlo contribuisce a definire la strategia tecnologica di medio e lungo termine dell’azienda, definendo specifiche iniziative strategiche volte a rappresentare le diverse esigenze di HPE in ambito della Industry 5.0 e aiuta le aziende PMI italiane e le aziende enterprise nel loro percorso di accelerazione verso una trasformazione digitale che le renda più competitive sui loro rispettivi mercati.
Ha cominciato la sua carriera in IBM Italia facendo parte del Centro Competenza AIX come Solution Architect e poi successivamente ha lavorato come CTO per Sun Microsystems occupandosi di definire le strategie in ambito DC. Nel 2010 è stato nominato come CTO per l’Europa-Middle East and Africa in Oracle, focalizzando i suoi interessi nell’estrazione a valore di informazioni da grandi moli di dati strutturati e non. Qui ha iniziato lavorare nel campo dell’IA fino al 2015 dove ha iniziato a ricoprire in HP prima e poi in HPE il ruolo di Distinguished Chief Technologist prima in ruolo europeo e dal 2018 lo stesso ruolo in Italia. Nel 2024 ha ottenuto e progettato insieme a un team di Data Scientist una piattaforma agentica denominata “LLM-Mesh Platform” che è stata brevettata come invenzione (DocketNo. P175205US) dal governo americano.
Carlo è un Ingegnere laureato al Politecnico di Milano ed ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in Computer Science presso la EU Business School University di Ginevra, un MBA presso la Business School del MIT di Boston, detiene diverse pubblicazioni su periodici quali ‘Computer Networks’ e ‘IEEE Proceedings’ e presenta a numerose conferenze come il DataWorks Summit sia in Europa che negli Stati Uniti.
Lorenzo De Amici
Commercial Account Executive Italy
Wasabi
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Lorenzo De Amici
Luca Bernardelli
Psicologo e autore, Consulente del Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine degli Psicologi nelle aree Intelligenza Artificiale e Psicologia Digitale
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Luca Bernardelli
AI & Data Summit Milan
Thu, Oct 8
Registration & Welcome Coffee
IDC Opening
Roberta Bigliani
Group Vice President Global Lead for Industries, IDC
IDC Keynote
Agentic AI at Scale: Accelerating Innovation While Managing Risk
Agentic AI is unlocking new levels of enterprise innovation by enabling autonomous decision-making and adaptive workflows at scale. Balancing this potential with robust risk management is essential for ensuring trust, compliance, and sustainable value as organizations operationalize agentic systems across critical functions.
Alessandro Perilli | IDC
Vice President, Research, AI Economics
Alessandro Perilli
Alessandro Perilli is a Vice President leading the Agentic AI Platforms and Strategies research program. Alessandro’s core research coverage includes emerging AI technologies, global AI market trends, the state of enterprise AI, and sovereign AI.
Most recently, Alessandro founded Unstable Reality, an AI R&D lab in London, where he worked as Chief of Research, developing synthetic media generation solutions for creative studios, ad agencies, and large end-user organizations.
Among other projects, Alessandro published a weekly newsletter dedicated to tracking how AI is reshaping jobs, workforce productivity, and business operations.
Previously, Alessandro served as a senior leader at Red Hat, focused on business and product strategy. Across roles, Alessandro has also worked as an advisor to Fortune Global 2000 companies, helping IT decision makers translate emerging technology shifts into actionable and risk-informed strategies.
Throughout his career, Alessandro has often delivered keynotes at industry and vendor events, focusing on the state of the union and emerging trends in cybersecurity, virtualization, and cloud computing.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:10
IDC Connect
Each table seats a sponsor moderator and a small group of pre-registered delegates. Each session takes place simultaneously and is about increased interaction, experience sharing and peer discussions relevant across companies and industries.
- IDC Connect 1 – The Agentic AI Decision: What ICT Leaders Need to Know Before Scaling – Chaired by Informatica form Salesforce
- IDC Connect 2 – The EU AI Act Is Here: An ICT Leader’s Roadmap to Compliance and Beyond – Chaired by Paradigma, Law & Strategy
- IDC Connect 3 – Data Sovereignty: What It Really Means for Italian Enterprises – Chaired by IDC
- IDC Connect 4 – AI Economics: How to Calculate the Cost and Value Creation of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives – Chaired by IDC
- IDC Connect 5 – GenAI at Work: What’s Actually Delivering Productivity in Italian Enterprises – Chaired by Mauden
- IDC Connect 6 – Trust by Design: Embedding Governance in Enterprise AI – Chaired by Qlik
- IDC Connect 7 – Beyond Technology: Leading People and Culture Through the AI Transition – Chaired by Webuild
- IDC Connect 8 – Creating and Demonstrating the Value of AI: How CIOs Build the Business Case – Chaired by Celonis
One Day Event 09:30
IDC Keynote
Agentic AI at Scale: Accelerating Innovation While Managing Risk
Agentic AI is unlocking new levels of enterprise innovation by enabling autonomous decision-making and adaptive workflows at scale. Balancing this potential with robust risk management is essential for ensuring trust, compliance, and sustainable value as organizations operationalize agentic systems across critical functions.
Host Sponsor Session – The code is free. Trust is not. Governing software written by AI
Daniele Natali
Presales Manager, Mauden
Strategic sponsor session
Managing Complexity to Make Artificial Intelligence a Real Business Driver
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence is often hindered by structural obstacles: data silos, a lack of business context, architectural rigidity, and unexpected costs inevitably slow its progress. To transform experiments into tangible value and make AI a concrete driver of business growth, these barriers must be overcome. In this context, a unified architecture allows models to be deployed directly where the information resides, providing algorithms with the essential context for proprietary data. Through real-world case studies, we’ll explore how to make artificial intelligence production-ready by combining context with precise governance and observability.
It is precisely the synergy between these key elements that enables us to manage complexity, optimize investments, and scale innovation in a controlled manner to ensure rapid time to market and a return on investment.
Crescenzo Oliviero
Manager Solution Engineer, Snowflake Italia
Guest Keynote Speaker | Credem Experience
Generative AI in a century-old bank? It can be done!
Piergiorgio Grossi
Chief Innovation & Data Officer, Credem
Strategic sponsor session
Qlik & PagoPA Experience
Cristina Pecchini
Responsabile Data Products &BI, PagoPA
Giorgio Dossena
Senior Presales Manager, Qlik
Strategic Sponsor Session
From AI Pilots to AI at Scale: Why Observability Is the Missing Link
As Italian companies move from experimenting with AI to widespread enterprise adoption, many are struggling to ensure that AI systems meet the same standards of reliability, performance, and governance required of their core infrastructure. This session explores how full-stack observability—spanning infrastructure, applications, and the AI/LLM models that power them—gives technology leaders the visibility and control they need to scale AI securely and with greater confidence.
Monica Versino
Strategic Account Executive, Datadog
Coffee Break, Visit to Expo Area, and 1to1 Meetings
Guest Keynote Speaker | RCS Experience
Two Speeds, One AI: How RCS Brings Business and IT Together
Rocco Michele Lancellotti
Chief Data & AI Officer, RCS MediaGroup
Strategic Sponsor Session
The Data Control Plane
Nicola Sandoli
Data Governance Specialist, Informatica from Salesforce
Tech Talk Sponsor
The AI Factory Becomes the Computer
Carlo Vaiti
Distinguished Chief Technologist Officer, HPE
IDC Connect
Each table seats a sponsor moderator and a small group of pre-registered delegates. Each session takes place simultaneously and is about increased interaction, experience sharing and peer discussions relevant across companies and industries.
- IDC Connect 1 – The Agentic AI Decision: What ICT Leaders Need to Know Before Scaling – Chaired by Informatica form Salesforce
- IDC Connect 2 – The EU AI Act Is Here: An ICT Leader’s Roadmap to Compliance and Beyond – Chaired by Paradigma, Law & Strategy
- IDC Connect 3 – Data Sovereignty: What It Really Means for Italian Enterprises – Chaired by IDC
- IDC Connect 4 – AI Economics: How to Calculate the Cost and Value Creation of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives – Chaired by IDC
- IDC Connect 5 – GenAI at Work: What’s Actually Delivering Productivity in Italian Enterprises – Chaired by Mauden
- IDC Connect 6 – Trust by Design: Embedding Governance in Enterprise AI – Chaired by Qlik
- IDC Connect 7 – Beyond Technology: Leading People and Culture Through the AI Transition – Chaired by Webuild
- IDC Connect 8 – Creating and Demonstrating the Value of AI: How CIOs Build the Business Case – Chaired by Celonis
Nicola Sandoli
Data Governance Specialist, Informatica from Salesforce
Massimo Donna
Avvocato e Managing Partner, Head of the Technology Group, Paradigma, Law & Strategy
Carla La Croce
Research Manager Data & Analytics, IDC
Alessandro Perilli
Vice President, Research, AI Economics, IDC
Daniele Natali
Presales Manager, Mauden
Riccardo Paganelli
Account Executive, Qlik
Fabrizio Degni
AI Ethics and Governance Researcher, IT and Digital Systems AI and Data Governance Manager, ENIA Scientific Commitee Member, WeBuild
Marco Trezzi
VP, Global Head of Market Intelligence, Celonis
Tech Pitch
Scaling AI at the Enterprise Level: Performance, Governance, and Risk.
Lorenzo De Amici
Commercial Account Executive Italy, Wasabi
Honorary Guest Speaker – External View
Digital Psychology and AI: How Technology Impacts Our Minds
Psychologist and author of the book “A Psychological Guide to the Digital Revolution”
Luca Bernardelli
Psicologo e autore, Consulente del Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine degli Psicologi nelle aree Intelligenza Artificiale e Psicologia Digitale
Closing remarks
by Mauden
Closing remarks
by IDC
Networking Lunch, Visit to Expo Area, and 1to1 Meetings
How to join
The event, which will take place on October 8, 2026 starting at 9:00 am is free of charge (upon filling the registration form), for professionals in the following sectors: Manufacturing, Automotive, Fashion, Finance, Banking and Insurance, Retail, Energy and Utilities, Media, Government, Health, Education, Transports, Logistics, Telecommunications, Personal and Professional Services.
Access to the event is not allowed for non-sponsoring ICT companies (vendor, distributors, reseller, VAR, system integrator), ICT consultancy and services companies, private individuals and freelancers.
The official language of the event is Italian.
Knowledge Hub
5 Key Highlights on the European Observability Market in 2025
Observability is rapidly evolving as organizations across Europe embrace digital transformation, cloud adoption, and AI. As IT environments become more complex, traditional monitoring approaches are no longer sufficient.
The Agentic Business Future: Driving Resilience, Sovereignty, and Innovation in EMEA
As organizations navigate an era defined by economic uncertainty, geopolitical shifts, and relentless technological change, one truth stands out: the future belongs to those who can harness AI, automation, and sovereignty to build resilience, drive innovation, and unlock growth.
Shadow AI: How stealth productivity is strangling enterprise AI adoption. And creating a security nightmare…
Remember the good old days when “Shadow IT” was just about rogue Excel spreadsheets and unauthorized Dropbox accounts? But the times they are a-changing! Now we’re dealing with something far more insidious: Shadow AI.
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