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Within the space of a few weeks, the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy has launched two complementary initiatives focusing on artificial intelligence: on the one hand, our mission to the US West Coast; on the other, the publication of the position paper by AmCham’s Artificial Intelligence Committee. These two examples illustrate how, between Italy and the United States, artificial intelligence is set to become a shared industrial sector rather than merely a technological trend.
This is not the first initiative to be part of this transatlantic collaboration: indeed, it is worth noting the recent mission to California with Intesa Sanpaolo, which developed an acceleration programme for 12 innovative Italian start-ups as a result of the collaboration between Innovit and the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Centre. A programme designed to foster learning and packed with meetings with potential investors, which took place in San Francisco to showcase the excellence of Italian innovation and offer the selected start-ups an opportunity to expand internationally.
From the Bay Area to Seattle: AI as seen from the Cradle of Innovation
In May 2026, an AmCham delegation travelled along the West Coast with one question in mind: how can AI be transformed from a buzzword into a competitive advantage for Italian businesses? The answer emerged over the course of a week of meetings involving Salesforce, Perplexity, Google, Apple, Meta, as well as Qualcomm, Stanford, Starbucks and Boeing, as part of a programme developed in collaboration with our partners, including the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco.
In San Francisco, Salesforce demonstrated how generative AI is transforming the way companies manage customers, sales and support: algorithms integrated into workflows, co-pilots that suggest actions, and models trained on sector-specific data. For the Italian start-ups in attendance, the message was clear: if AI becomes a service infrastructure, those offering high-quality vertical solutions – from manufacturing to finance, from tourism to healthcare – have a natural place in this value chain.
Perplexity, Google, Qualcomm: AI as a platform
The visit to Perplexity, the Answer Engine founded in 2022 and already a global benchmark for AI-based search, has brought another transformation into sharp relief: AI is not just about text generation, but acts as an intelligent interface to knowledge. Here, the scope for collaboration with Italy lies with those who know how to manage data, ensure the quality of sources and take sector-specific context into account – all essential elements for models that need to be useful and reliable.
In Silicon Valley, Google and Qualcomm offered the perspective of companies that integrate AI into every layer of the infrastructure: from the cloud to hardware, from robotics to wireless communications. This perspective resonates with Italy’s industrial DNA: components, embedded systems and advanced manufacturing – sectors in which collaboration with major US players can lead to joint platforms, common standards and integrated supply chains.
The figures speak for themselves: an asymmetry that could turn into an alliance
Whilst the mission statement explains the ‘how’, the position paper by AmCham’s Artificial Intelligence Committee explains the ‘why’ and the ‘how much’. In 2024, the United States alone attracted over $109 billion in private investment in AI, with a cumulative total of around $328 billion between 2019 and 2023: more than double that of China and over ten times that of the entire European Union; over 75 per cent of global foundation models originate overseas, whilst in Europe there are just three, all in France.
In terms of adoption, the gap is just as evident: globally, more than 75 per cent of companies are already using AI solutions, driven primarily by generative AI; in the European Union, 13.5 per cent of businesses are adopting artificial intelligence technologies, with Italy stagnating at between 8 and 9 per cent. This gap cannot be bridged by incentives alone, but requires clear regulations and adequate infrastructure: without upfront investment in computing capacity, secure cloud services and advanced data centres, the cost in terms of productivity and attractiveness could amount to as much as 11.5 per cent of potential GDP.
Rules, not constraints: the AI Act as a competitive advantage
The IA Committee’s document emphasises one point: the regulatory framework is now in place – the European AI Act, the Italian Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2024–2026, and National Law 132/2025, which assigns AgID and ACN a central role in governance – but the real challenge lies in implementation. In Italy, the risk is no longer a lack of regulations, but rather fragmentation in their application, with inconsistent procedures, duplication of effort and compliance costs that weigh particularly heavily on start-ups and SMEs.
To avoid this, the Committee proposes concrete measures: a one-stop digital shop for AI, a standard set of procedural rules, fast-track procedures for strategic projects and accessible regulatory sandboxes, so as to reduce authorisation times, increase legal certainty and make the country more attractive to investors. This response looks beyond the debate on tariffs: in the world of AI, the barrier is not so much tariff-related as it is infrastructural and regulatory, and hinges on access to computing platforms and the ability to guarantee security, data sovereignty and interoperability.
In the position paper, this evolution is described as a dialogue between two trajectories: the US approach, which is more flexible and market-oriented, and the European approach, which is built around trust and the protection of fundamental rights. In this scenario, Italy can act as a bridge, combining European regulatory culture and industrial tradition with ever-closer collaboration with American partners in fields such as research, cloud computing, digital infrastructure and security.
Hence the proposal for a permanent public-private consultation forum to work alongside the National Coordination Committee for AI, involving businesses, universities and research centres to align regulations, technology and the needs of the real economy. In contrast, the mission to the West Coast shows that this alliance is already underway: Italian companies that have set foot in the offices of Salesforce, Perplexity, Google or Boeing are returning home not only with contacts, but also with an operational agenda comprising pilot projects, shared standards and common platforms.
If AI is the new infrastructure of the global economy, the challenge for Italy is twofold: to prevent the regulatory framework from becoming a hindrance and to turn it instead into a competitive advantage, making artificial intelligence – and its transatlantic partnerships – one of the driving forces behind its digital sovereignty. (Pictured: a view of San Francisco, photo by Zetong Li on Unsplash)
Note to the reader: the author is the managing director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy
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