Innovating together: humans and machines shaping an augmented future

Imagine creating a product not only through our own creativity and the expertise of the team supporting us, but also with the help of an intelligent machine. A machine capable, for example, of analyzing vast amounts of data that are unreadable to the human eye because of their volume and variety, and of using them in a rational and even a bit creative way through text, calculations, and graphics. Having such an “agent” at our disposal—because it would precisely be a machine with agentic intelligence—would be metaphorically similar to having a 007 at hand when solving a spy story. It would significantly enhance our ability to innovate effectively. And, let’s face it, today’s world is in tremendous need of innovation.

First and foremost, because innovation is the only economic engine of growth—as convincingly demonstrated through their remarkable historical, statistical, and even mathematical studies by last year’s three Nobel Prize-winning economists, Aghion, Howitt, and Mokyr. Innovation also increases corporate sales and profits and therefore indirectly contributes more than anything else to the GDP of European sectors and countries seeking the growth needed to finance the substantial debt that now characterizes almost all of them. Above all, innovation helps solve society’s problems, from finding new sources of sustainable energy and extending human longevity to enabling some form of industrial activity in space, for example on the Moon, in order to reduce pollution on Earth.

But is this human-machine combination for innovation merely a utopian vision, or are we actually getting there? In reality, the era of super-innovation—the age of augmented innovation, in which human and artificial intelligence work together—is already here.

Consider what is happening in preclinical research within the life sciences sector. Until recently, the first stage of the drug development process took several years and led to the identification of compounds that, despite researchers’ expertise and the substantial investments devoted to them, were often rejected during subsequent clinical testing phases involving patients. Without the support of an intelligent machine, biomedical research is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack with a dim light. Today, however, it is possible to identify a therapeutic target through the use of organoids (large cellular structures that replicate the behavior of entire organs such as the liver and brain), which are stimulated with innovative compounds. These compounds are not only the result of the ingenuity of the research teams that conceived them, but are also progressively selected and refined through the essential support of digital algorithms. These algorithms help clarify the images produced by microscopes capable of observing matter at the atomic level and, thanks to their computational and visualization capabilities, make it possible to rule out options that would ultimately prove unsuccessful.

Drugs are only one example of what is happening across many other scientific and technological fields, ranging from robotics and space exploration to the energy and security industries.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and all of this comes at a cost. There is the direct cost of acquiring the technology, but that is actually the lesser challenge. The real cost lies in learning to work differently from how we have operated until now, both as individuals and as organizations. It is the human cost of resisting changes to everyday work routines, and the organizational cost of the inertia that leads companies to hide behind “we’ve always done it this way” and “it wasn’t invented here.” Quickly overcoming these natural obstacles through training and updated incentive systems is the only way to reignite business productivity in Italy and Europe in a constructive manner. These are places rich in creativity and expertise, but they still need to develop a full appreciation of digital technology and integrate it into their processes.

The new agentic reality of artificial intelligence is often viewed as competing with human contribution. We see graphic design algorithms reducing the workload of agencies, chatbots decreasing the need for call center operators, and generative AI replacing junior assistants in many professions. Far less attention is paid to the fact that digital technology is, in reality, a natural companion to our capacity for innovation. This shift in perspective will be essential if Italy and Europe are finally to harness the industrial revolution productively during these fascinating yet highly complex years.

This article can also be read in Repubblica Affari&Finanza (in Italian) as part of the joint Idee per la Crescita initiative. In addition to Gianmario Verona , the innovation-focused event featured Luca D’Agnese , Director of Policy, Evaluation and Advisory at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and Carmelo Mariano , AI Practice Leader at KPMG Italy. For all other articles and videos from the event (in Italian), click here .