For years, we lulled the idea that Generation Z, born in the late 1990s and early 2010s, was inherently prepared for the technological revolution.
We called its members ‘digital natives’, taking it for granted that familiarity with a smartphone screen automatically translated into technical competence.

The latest Eurostat report on the adoption of emerging technologies acts as a cold shower on this narrative: young Italians between the ages of 16 and 24 are in last place in Europe for their use and experimentation with artificial intelligence.

While in Helsinki, Amsterdam or Copenhagen (but also in Athens or Lisbon) AI has already become a daily tool for study, research and content production for more than 60% of young people, in Italy the percentage drops dramatically below the 30% threshold.
We are at the bottom of the list, overtaken by nations that historically suffered from a greater infrastructural gap, but which are now running faster on the frontier of innovation.

This is not just a statistic; it is the sign of an educational and competitive emergency that risks marginalising Italy in the context of the Digital Single Market.

A two-speed Europe

If we look at the map of the Union, the gap does not follow such a clear geographical and cultural trajectory.
There are northern and Baltic countries that have integrated algorithmic literacy into school curricula already for a lustre, but there are also once backward nations where artificial intelligence, like the entire digital sector, is not perceived as a threat but as a public ‘utility’ and a necessary driver for growth.

In Italy, however, the debate has long remained hostage to a sterile polarisation: on the one hand uncritical enthusiasm, on the other the fear of job substitution.
The result is passive adoption. Our young people use technology for content consumption (social media, streaming), but rarely for value creation.

The Eurostat report highlights how the Italian GenZ uses AI mainly for recreational purposes, while the use of advanced language models (LLM) for coding, data analysis or complex synthesis is lacking.
In a Europe that has just launched the AI Act to regulate the ethical development of these technologies, Italy risks having the rules without even having the players.

The roots of backwardness: market and school

Why do young Italians not ‘fully’ use this technology?
The causes are structural and deep-rooted. Firstly, the school and academic system is chronically lagging behind. Despite the efforts of the PNRR, the teaching of STEM disciplines is still too theoretical and detached from the needs of the global market.

Suffice it to say that, despite having invested billions of PNRR funds in research and development on the digital humanities, Italy refused to create a new scientific-disciplinary code that would allow it to open dedicated chairs in its universities: too much was the fear of breaking old balances of power.

Thus, while a young Danish student learns to interrogate an algorithm to optimise scientific research, his Italian peer is often still grappling with obsolete computer labs or, worse, a generalised institutional distrust of the use of AI.

But even more important are the structure of our productive fabric and the language deficit.
Italy, as we know, is the country of micro-enterprises and SMEs, realities that often lack the resources or vision to integrate AI into business processes.

A young person entering the working world in Italy has no incentive to use AI because his employer often does not even know what it is.
Moreover, in the defence of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, a recent CEPR study of 12,000 companies across Europe suggests that even when SMEs try to adopt AI models, they get a drop, not an increase, in productivity.
It is the very essence of the small business that seems ill-suited to the new world of AI-driven work.

Graphic from Aldasoro, Gambacorta et alii, “How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe”, 17 February 2026

Added to this is another barrier of our own, which is the language barrier: although the models apparently know how to speak Italian to their end customers, edge innovation travels in English.
Those who do not master the lingua franca of technology remain one step behind in understanding the potential of new tools.

Brain drain 4.0

The most concrete risk for Italy, in this European framework, is a new and more devious migratory wave. No longer just doctors or researchers, but ‘algorithmic flow experts’.
The few young Italians who, as self-taught, manage to develop excellent skills in AI, rarely find fertile ground at home.
They are attracted by the technology hubs of Paris, Berlin or Tallinn, where the start-up ecosystem is vibrant and AI is at the centre of the political and economic agenda.

Italy is exporting its most valuable human capital just when it needs it to modernise its public administration and industry. If we do not reverse course, our Generation Z will be the first in history to be ‘overtaken on the right’ by technologies it should have dominated.

Towards an algorithmic citizenship

The issue is not only technological, but democratic. The ability to interact with artificial intelligence will soon be a requirement for citizenship, as much as knowing how to read and write. We cannot afford an Italy travelling at a different speed from the core of the Union.

In short, a national pact for ‘Augmented Citizenship’ is needed.

The last call

The Eurostat figure is a stark warning: Italy is stuck in the pits while the rest of Europe has already entered fifth.
Remaining in last place in the adoption of AI does not only mean losing a technological challenge, but condemning a generation to a role of subalternity in the global labour market.

It is time to stop looking at artificial intelligence as a distant future and start treating it as the most urgent present. The challenge is open, but the time for excuses is over.