It is called Fusion AI Labs, the name of the centre of excellence for artificial intelligence that aims to welcome at least 130 researchers and professionals by 2028 to its headquarters located in the eastern part of Genoa.
The project, which aims to have an impact at European level, was created to bridge the gap between academic research and the industrial application of artificial intelligence. It promotes applied research based on mature technologies, testing their impact in real-world contexts. The goal is to enable companies to experiment with, understand and adopt AI in a safe and sustainable way.
Fusion AI Labs’ business model is based on the concept of a Centre of Excellence (CoE), a model that allows companies to experiment with AI in controlled environments, reducing risks and accelerating the path to industrial adoption. This makes it possible to transform knowledge into concrete solutions for organisations and citizens.
A model that President Dario Pardi and CEO Andrea Pescino are also extending to start-ups, as they explain to Startupbusiness: “Our goal is to create value that can also become start-ups in order to accelerate the process of evolution from the research phase to the market phase. It is an approach that involves the players involved in Fusion AI Labs and is strongly oriented towards value creation. We are not a venture builder, but we can certainly become a hotbed of artificial intelligence-based projects that can find applications in various sectors and thus also become promising start-ups that can then go to market independently and attract the attention of industrial and financial partners.”
Fusion AI Labs is a private initiative with a public vision, the result of a wholly private joint venture between Expert.ai, a company active in the implementation of enterprise artificial intelligence solutions led by Dario Pardi himself, and AI Fusion Holding, a company led by Andrea Pescino, composed of a team of experts in the IT and AI sector who, after years of working abroad, have decided to make their international experience available for this initiative. The transaction led to the establishment of Fusion AI Labs, a company owned 51% by Expert.ai and 49% by AI Fusion Holding.
“Expert.ai is a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence systems for language understanding. The creation of Fusion AI Labs was the natural consequence of our desire to innovate and stay ahead of the curve, as we have always done,” said Pardi, who is president of both Expert.ai and Fusion AI Labs, in a statement.
Genoa was one of the cradles of artificial intelligence in Italy, the historic home of pioneering projects such as postal automation and computer vision. The city was chosen as the location not only for its vocation for innovation, but also for the presence of cutting-edge facilities such as the university’s computer science and engineering departments, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the National Research Council (CNR). The Labs will house, for example, the robotics innovation hub envisaged by the European Ulysseus project, which connects the University of Genoa to other European universities. Furthermore, Genoa has a forward-looking industrial tradition and a strategic position in the Mediterranean, open to collaboration with Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, strategic areas for future development. Genoa also offers an attractive quality of life, with its sea and hinterland, mild climate, traditions and culture.
The Labs operate in joint research mode, where theory and practice merge and where industrial and academic experts work together to test and validate concrete use cases. One example is the European Villanova project, part of the IPCEI-CIS initiative, which aims to strengthen European technological sovereignty through the development of multimodal and multilingual generative AI solutions. Fusion AI Labs contributes advanced expertise in language models and human-machine collaboration to support use case experimentation and validation of the Villanova framework.
Among the first partners with whom Fusion AI Labs has initiated discussions in Genoa is the Gerolamo Gaslini Foundation, and in particular the Giannina Gaslini Paediatric Hospital, a centre of excellence in clinical research and healthcare innovation. The dialogue aims to explore possible synergies and areas of application for artificial intelligence in the field of healthcare, in line with the initiatives already launched by Gaslini in clinical research and data analysis.
This openness to dialogue with healthcare and research institutions is an example of the role that Fusion AI Labs intends to play: promoting knowledge sharing and the responsible adoption of AI technologies at local, national and European level.
Alongside research, Fusion AI Labs hosts an Academy for the continuous training of young talents, professionals and managers. The aim is to build a bridge between universities and businesses, promoting upskilling and reskilling programmes that support the spread of digital skills in the productive fabric. In addition, a plan of national and international events is already in place, which will attract experts from all over the world to Genoa.
About 130 professionals will be hired and 50-70 experts from industrial partners will work on-site at the Fusion AI Lab Centres of Excellence. The tripartite recruitment model will ensure a strategic balance of skills: 40% local talent, to offer excellent career opportunities without having to leave the city; 30% from other Italian regions, to strengthen connections and synergies at national level; 30% international talent. to bring global perspectives and direct links with leading research centres around the world.
The initiative is part of the European Union’s strategic framework, which, with the AI Act and the AI Continent Plan, aims to establish a human-centric model of innovation. The European Apply AI strategy, approved in October 2025, encourages an AI-first approach and promotes a ‘buy European’ logic, favouring solutions developed in Europe.
Fusion AI Labs represents a concrete response to this vision, providing a European laboratory for the experimentation and responsible adoption of artificial intelligence. Social impact. Fusion AI Labs’ journey would not be complete without a commitment to solutions with a social impact, through research initiatives dedicated to citizens. These include longevity & wellness, a programme aimed at promoting well-being and prevention, and AI for education, designed for students and teachers to encourage personalised and inclusive learning, in line with the needs of the new generations and the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.
I am thrilled to be able to put to good use in Italy the significant experience I have gained in Europe in the adoption of artificial intelligence. With Fusion AI Labs, we aim to develop a positive environment for our country, bringing back talent, training the professionals of the future and, above all, facilitating the effective integration of AI into organisations. We want to be a catalyst for innovation, helping businesses to fully seize the opportunities offered by this extraordinary technology,’ concludes Pescino. (in the photo).
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