Understanding which technologies will have an impact on businesses is only the first step. The more complex challenge is turning this knowledge into widespread capabilities, new ways of working, and a concrete ability to innovate. This was the key message emerging from the event held at SDA Bocconi, which traced a journey from DEVO Lab research to executive education and, finally, to a discussion with major companies engaged in digital transformation. The dialogue highlighted how technology adoption cannot be separated from people’s development and organizations’ ability to manage change.

Understanding Technologies Before Adopting Them

The discussion was introduced by Gianluigi Castelli, Director of the DEVO Lab and Associate Professor of Practice, IT Management, together with DEVO Lab researchers Nico Abbatemarco, Assistant Professor of Practice, Digital Transformation and Cyber Security; Leonardo De Rossi, Assistant Professor of Practice, Digital Transformation; Lorenzo Diaferia, Adjunct Lecturer, Digital Transformation; and Beatrice Riva, Knowledge Analyst, Digital Transformation. They presented HIT Radar 13, a research initiative that monitors high-impact technologies and assesses their relevance and outlook for businesses across three dimensions: distance to adoption, impact, and speed of advancement.

In a landscape dominated by AI but shaped by much broader developments—from cybersecurity and new digital infrastructures to quantum computing and robotics—the message for companies is to avoid approaches driven by technology hype. Instead, organizations need to understand which innovations are genuinely relevant to their specific context, processes, and business objectives, while also assessing their potential returns and organizational implications.

From Knowledge to Executive Education

Research provides the foundation for designing learning experiences that can help managers and organizations interpret change. As Gianluca Salviotti, Associate Professor of Practice, Digital Transformation, highlighted, the insights generated by the DEVO Lab feed directly into SDA Bocconi’s executive education, transforming technology monitoring into opportunities to develop awareness, critical thinking, and the ability to assess opportunities and risks in concrete terms.

In a context where technologies and applications evolve at a pace that is difficult to reconcile with traditional learning models, education cannot be limited to transferring technical knowledge. It must help people understand where to experiment, which use cases to develop, how to manage risks, and, above all, how to integrate new technologies into business processes and strategies. Research thus becomes the starting point of a continuous process connecting scouting, learning, and organizational transformation.

How Companies Are Building AI Capabilities

The roundtable, moderated by Ferdinando Pennarola, Scientific Director of the DEVO Lab and Associate Professor, Leadership, brought the discussion into the realm of business practice through the experiences of Stefania Capelli, HR Business Partner Sales, South Europe, CISCO; Valeria De Flaviis, Head of Innovation & Emerging Technologies, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti; Esmeralda Faccioli Pintozzi, Head of Digital Change Management, UniCredit; and Maria Vittoria Giancola, Digital Strategy & Innovation Labs and IT Business Partners Director, Prysmian. Despite coming from different organizational contexts, the experiences they shared revealed a common journey: from awareness and AI literacy to experimentation, followed by the creation of internal communities and more structured models for integrating AI into business processes.

A central element is the role of education as a lever for change management. The most effective learning journeys combine sessions focused on foundational knowledge with hands-on workshops, use case development, and peer exchange, often differentiating between training designed for the broader workforce and programs aimed specifically at leaders. Top management involvement, the creation of internal communities, and the presence of ambassadors who can spread knowledge and practices thus become key tools for turning individual technology adoption into broader organizational and cultural change.

The discussion also highlighted the growing focus on measuring impact. Adoption rates, tool usage, hours saved, output quality, and the economic impact of individual use cases are among the indicators companies are using. Yet the issue goes beyond efficiency: the time freed up by technology can be reinvested in higher-value activities, making it necessary to rethink roles, skills, and ways of working.

The event ultimately showed how research, education, and business transformation are all part of the same journey. Understanding emerging technologies makes it possible to anticipate their implications; developing skills enables people to use them with greater awareness; and experimenting with them within business processes makes it possible to translate their potential into value. This continuous exchange between knowledge and application reinforces the role of dialogue between SDA Bocconi and companies: not simply observing technological change, but working together to build the capabilities needed to navigate and shape it.