ROME, May 29 (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence can significantly boost Italy’s weak labour productivity, the country’s central bank governor Fabio Panetta said on Friday.
• Panetta was speaking at the Bank of Italy’s annual assembly.
• He said under a slow-adoption scenario, AI could increase Italian productivity by 0.2 percentage points per year, and could raise it by more than one point per year assuming rapid and wide adoption.
• To support AI innovation, Italy needs to strengthen venture capital and private equity industries, he said.
• Currently, 30% of Italian firms use AI, but only around 5% use it intensively, Panetta noted.
• The uptake of AI in Italy is low by international standards and public action is needed to increase it, he added.
• The Bank of Italy is in touch with leading global developers of AI technology and has recently launched talks with banks on its adoption, Panetta said.
(Reporting by Valentina Za and Giuseppe Fonte, editing by Gavin Jones)