The consequences of the pandemic affect all industries, triggering strong innovation and digital transformation processes, within companies and SMEs.

This is confirmed by the recent survey data of the International Data Corporation (IDC): companies are investing more and more resources in artificial intelligence to obtain advantages over competitors, to know their customers better, and to set up more efficient production processes. It is not just a matter of greater availability of economic resources, but also a commitment to the renewal of corporate culture at all management levels. 

According to the Guide to Worldwide Spending on Artificial Intelligence, worldwide spending on artificial intelligence systems will grow from the current $85.3 billion, to more than $204 billion in 2025. The compound annual growth rate, for the period 2021-2025, will increase by 24.5%.

Retail and banking are the sectors where we will see the greatest investments; in the former, spending will focus primarily on customer care and innovations that improve customer experience, while banks will aim to adopt technologies with artificial intelligence to reduce risk, through automated applications of threat intelligence and fraud intelligence. Overall, all industries reviewed in IDC's analysis will have annual growth rates in excess of 20% by 2025.​

Artificial intelligence, therefore, will be primarily geared toward solutions that manage better customer interactions and that improve the efficiency of production processes and the supply chain, leading to a potentially radical business renewal.

The United States will provide more than half of all artificial intelligence spending, concentrated in the Retail and Banking sectors, followed by Europe and China.

Artificial intelligence algorithms and machine learning are increasingly gaining traction also in the insurance industry. Those technologies are already used by 31% of companies, while another 24% are in a proof-of-concept phase. The development of the insurtech sector finds confirmation in the steady growth of investments worldwide, which have increased from $2.6 billion in 2018, to $6.8 billion in 2019, according to the Italian Insurtech Association. France is the country with the highest growth in investments compared to 2019, collecting a total of almost 830 million euros (+18.5%) distributed among 63 operations with an average value of 13 million (+20.6%); in Italy, on the other hand, investments in the sector were less than 200 million euros.

Development in our country has often slowed down due to difficulties in adapting to sector regulations, low investment and a lack of innovation culture.

At UnipolTech we are committed to being at the forefront of the telematics market, investing in new cutting-edge technological solutions to intercept the most promising trends, to offer increasingly comfortable, high-performing and convenient solutions to Unipol Group customers. A constant R&D commitment on solutions that include machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, data collection and optimization, and in full compliance with privacy regulations.