Assessing Italy's maturity in the face of the digital revolution

Better known as the Digital Revolution, the current Fourth Industrial Revolution has changed society and business, prompting a disruptive boost in productivity and efficiency. At the core of this revolution lies the process of “Digital Transformation”, sparked by the increasingly fast progress of Computer Science and its vast and encompassing suite of enabling technologies. The study reported in this document assumes the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as an effective means to offer organizations best practices to embrace digitalization and the driving forces behind the Digital Transformation. Wider development of the digital economy is beneficial to qualified labor, with high value added. To further it more effectively, it is essential that governments, institutions, and businesses fully understand the maturity level of their digitalization - digital maturity - to identify critical areas that might impair competitiveness within and outside of national borders. This understanding led to the need to measure the progress of Digital Transformation, with a variety of indicators created to evaluate digital maturity. This thesis sampled the digital level - their adoption and integration of digital technologies - of Italian enterprises, within the broader framework of the European Union's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and the digital maturity assessment carried out by Confindustria in the 2018-2022 time period. That analysis shows that Italy has attained improvements in some areas since the start of measurement in 2017, for example in widespread internet access and availability of digital public services. However, major challenges still persist, above all with regard to developing digital skills and embracing more fully the adoption of advanced technologies, like for example those related to Machine Learning and Big Data analyses. Raising the level of digital maturity of Italian enterprises would help boost performance beyond the national border, within the wider European context, making single enterprises, and the country, more attractive and competitive on the international scene. The thesis evaluates how selected Italian enterprises are embracing Digital Transformation, along two specific axes: the adoption of the ITIL framework, and the integration of AI technologies. Based on a bibliographic analysis and targeted interviews carried out during the research work, the document outlines the state of digitalisation of these companies providing insights about their progress and challenges. This document is organized as follows: Chapter 1 provides an extensive introduction to Digital Transformation. In order to assess Italy’s current situation, Chapter 2 analyzes the country through the Digital Economy and Society Index of the European Commission, with a special focus on the business dimension. Also the results of the assessment made by Confindustria for Italian companies are presented. To delve deeper in the details, Chapter 3 presents five selected case studies about adoption of the ITIL framework and AI technologies of interviewed companies. Finally, the thesis concludes by summarizing key findings, which highlight various stages of ITIL adoption and AI integration within large Italian enterprises. These insights underscore the need for strategic alignment, enhanced training, and cultural change to navigate the evolving digital landscape effectively.