The first Annual Conference of SDA Bocconi’s Executive Master in Management delle Aziende Sanitarie e Socio-Assistenziali (EMMAS) marked the launch of a new space for dialogue and continuous learning for the EMMAS Community.

Conceived as a recurring forum, the Conference opens a shared platform for reflecting on the profound transformations shaping the healthcare and social care sector, through the voices of Alumni from the Program’s 24 editions.

The theme chosen for this inaugural edition – “GenAI in Healthcare” – reflects the scale and depth of the transformation currently underway. The entry of artificial intelligence into organizations and institutions is redefining professional work, organizational models, relationships with users and decision-making processes. It’s one of the most far-reaching and pervasive changes the sector has ever faced.

As emphasized by Valeria Tozzi, Director of EMMAS, the challenge goes well beyond the simple adoption of AI tools. It lies in understanding how these technologies are reshaping the relationship between knowledge, organizations and public value. In this perspective, as explained by Program Coordinator Lorenzo Fenech, the EMMAS Annual Conference is designed to nurture a learning network that can accompany the transformation of the healthcare and social care system, preserving the spirit of research and knowledge-sharing that has always defined the Master.

The Conference opened with a keynote by Luigi Preti, who offered a conceptual framework for navigating an increasingly complex technological landscape. Distinguishing between traditional AI, generative AI and agentic AI, he explained, is essential to understanding the evolution of technology from descriptive and prescriptive tools towards forms of reflective and interpretative autonomy. This shift calls for a new awareness of data and contextual dependencies, of the risks of bias and model drift, and above all of the need for an active human role in critical supervision. In healthcare, AI does not replace professionals: it enhances their capabilities, redefining skills, workflows and operational boundaries.

Building on this perspective, Francesco Petracca framed the adoption of GenAI as a process of systemic transformation, one that cuts across the traditional boundaries between public and private sectors, and between technology providers and healthcare organizations. This is a universal issue that must also be understood within the broader transformation of the economy towards “servitization”, as outlined by Enzo Baglieri. In this context, the EMMAS Community has the potential to become a permanent laboratory for mutual learning, a space where experiences, successes and challenges in the use of new tools for health management can be openly shared.

Insights from the Alumni survey, presented by Laura Giudice, revealed that early applications of AI and GenAI are already underway across both public healthcare organizations and private institutions. Alongside these first experiences, a strong need for continuous upskilling clearly emerged. The rapid pace of technological change makes it essential to create stable arenas for discussion, where the organizational, ethical and professional implications of increasingly pervasive technologies can be collectively interpreted.

With this objective in mind, the afternoon sessions were structured into four thematic working groups, recreating the interactive spirit of EMMAS classrooms. These sessions generated in-depth discussions by combining academic research perspectives with the practical experiences of Alumni.

• with Mario Del Vecchio, the focus turned to the reconfiguration of human work within healthcare systems, in light of the organizational changes driven by AI;

• Francesca Lecci explored new frontiers in forecasting complexity and planning in services characterized by low levels of standardization;

• Francesco Longo examined the transformation of access to services and the evolving management of relationships with citizens in a context where digitalization and AI are expanding possibilities;

• Valeria Tozzi guided a reflection on the change-management models required to transform healthcare organizations into “real-world” laboratories of innovation.

The final plenary session highlighted a shared awareness: AI and GenAI are progressively narrowing the gap between those who deliver services and those who develop technologies. Two domains that were once distinct are now increasingly interconnected through shared processes of learning, experimentation and governance.

As concluded by Elio Borgonovi, the goal is not to chase technology, but to govern it with intelligence, placing people, knowledge and the quality of care systems at the very center of transformation.

SDA Bocconi School of Management