Italian risk managers focus on digital risks at Milan conference

Italian risk managers will focus on digital risks and artificial intelligence when they meet at the Milan Convention Centre on 24-25 October for Anra’s 22nd annual conference.

The event will be one of the biggest meetings of the Italian risk and insurance community for years, with some 32 exhibitors signed up.

Anra president Carlo Cosimi, head of corporate insurance and risk financing at Italian oilfield servicing company Saipem, said in his introduction to the event that AI is rapidly driving the evolution of the business world and important questions need to be tackled in areas such as ethics and governance.

Cosimi pointed out that investments in AI solutions, machine learning, big data analysis and robotic process automation technologies are on track to reach a total size of more than $500bn by 2024, with growth of up to more than $1.5trn forecast by 2030.

“Sectors already using AI applications include the financial, energy and manufacturing sectors. Almost 60% of large Italian companies have already started AI processes but only 6% of SMEs,” stated Cosimi.

“AI presents itself as an increasingly important competitive element for strategic and corporate governance decisions. Deciding to use only internally available data is no longer enough; these data must be combined, profiled and analysed with data from external sources to try to predict and anticipate future trends and consequent scenarios for your company,” continued the Anra president.

Cosimi pointed out that, in Italy, almost 80% of large companies are undertaking reorganisation processes driven by AI.

“The application of the various forms of AI represents a source of power for governments, institutions, political, scientific and productive organisations that will be able to govern them: we speak of the ability to recognise images, to elaborate natural language, to develop open-source software libraries, applications in industrial processes, machine self-learning and progressive replacement of human labour,” he said.

“It is therefore necessary to ask ourselves right now what opportunities and what ethical limits must be respected, who will monitor and sanction violations and enforce these rules in a uniform way in the world, what are and will be the risks emerging from their use and with what tools they will be identified, evaluated and managed,” concluded Cosimi.

For more information on the event visit www.anra.it