Artificial intelligence is reshaping the way organizations make decisions and drive productivity. The real transformation lies in the ability to use new technologies to enhance competencies, relationships and judgment. This balance between innovation and the human factor shaped the event "Intelligenza artificiale e centralità del fattore umano", which brought together researchers, Faculty and business leaders for an afternoon of dialogue and knowledge sharing.

The event opened with remarks by Ferdinando Pennarola, Director of the Leadership, HR and Organization Area at SDA Bocconi School of Management, who emphasized that artificial intelligence is set to have a profound impact on business competitiveness. Its success, however, will depend on organizations' ability to adopt it without losing the competencies, relationships and creativity that make up their human capital.

This perspective was reinforced by the research findings of the SDA Bocconi Network Innovation Lab, presented by Leonardo Rizzo, Academic Fellow at SDA Bocconi School of Management and the SDA Network Innovation Lab. While AI accelerates activities and processes, it also makes collaboration among people even more important. Opportunities for discussion increase, knowledge sharing becomes more widespread, and interdisciplinary competencies capable of connecting different languages, functions and areas of expertise become increasingly valuable.

The experiences shared by Giorgia Favaro, Managing Director of McDonald's Italy, and Stefano Curzi, Head of Innovation Strategy at Intesa Sanpaolo, showed how this transformation is already underway. Democratizing access to AI tools, investing in learning, supporting change and developing new competencies are now essential conditions for technology to generate value. The key issue is not how much time AI helps save, but how that time is reinvested—creating more opportunities for cross-functional collaboration, knowledge sharing, better decision-making and stronger relationships with customers and colleagues.

The discussion then focused on the conditions needed to support the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence. As Ferdinando Pennarola pointed out, organizations need to design adoption pathways that engage people, enhance their contribution and accompany the profound generational changes that will reshape businesses, universities and learning models in the years ahead.

Artificial intelligence creates value when it unlocks people's potential. This is the challenge facing organizations today: using technology to amplify competencies, collaboration and judgment while keeping the human factor at the heart of transformation.

The event also provided an opportunity to reconnect with the community of alumni from the Leadership, HR and Organization Department, strengthening the dialogue between research, business and managers and confirming the value of continuous exchange as a driver of lifelong learning.

SDA Bocconi School of Management