FutureShots 2025: The Future of Business | May 23 | H-FARM

Innovation Events: FutureShots 2025One of the leading AI & tech events in Italy, FutureShots is our annual innovation festival. On May 23–24, thousands of entrepreneurs, companies, startups, and researchers gathered at our Campus near Venice.The theme of this 7th edition is the new humanism in the AI era.Main partner: Audi

FutureShots 2025: The Future of Business | Friday, May 23A day designed for professionals and companies to experience the future across a wide range of sectors, from mechatronics to agent computing, blockchain to neuroscience, design to HR, marketing to industrial automation. Moderator is Fjona Cakalli, Tech Reporter, Content Creator, and TV Host.Welcome and What’s NextRiccardo Donadon, Founder and CEO of H-FARMIn the midst of an unprecedented technological acceleration, one urgent question stands out: where are we headed? The answer isn’t in the algorithms, it’s in our perspective. What we need is a digital “rinascenza”, a new humanism where technology, knowledge, and science intertwine, and AI serves to amplify our potential. But innovation alone isn’t enough, it must be guided by responsibility. In the coming years, H-FARM is setting even more ambitious goals: we plan to expand our Campus with new hubs dedicated to AI, MedTech, sports, and space. Our vision is to become a true ecosystem where young people can grow equipped with cutting-edge tools and, just as importantly, with deep-rooted values.The AI That Creates ValueDiego Pizzocaro, CEO of H-FARM AIAI is everywhere, but not every new development is truly useful: some create real value, others are just noise. Adopting AI in business doesn’t mean following the crowd; it means thinking critically about what to integrate and how, while rethinking roles, responsibilities, and leadership styles.We’re getting closer to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and in 2025 we’re likely to hit 3 major milestones:World Models – AI is getting better at forming an internal “sense of the world,” predicting what might happen and making more informed decisions, just like we imagine outcomes before taking action. Tools like Google Veo 3 show how visual models can learn by simply observing and interpreting complex scenarios.Reasoning AI – New models no longer just return answers, they solve problems step by step, following a logical chain of thought. Systems like Claude 3 Opus, the European Mistral Large, or Gemini 1.5 demonstrate advanced autonomous reasoning.Semi-autonomous agents – These agents can carry out tasks without constant supervision and collaborate with other agents or people. From coding (Claude 4, GitHub Copilot Agent Mode) to business process management (Microsoft Discovery Agent, Copilot Studio), they’re becoming active players in real-world workflows.AI & Business Transformation: The New Era of Corporate InnovationMatteo Mille, Chief Sales Enablement & Operations at MicrosoftIn recent months, AI in business has made a significant leap, with agents now able to analyze, make decisions, and collaborate. Microsoft is bringing this concept to enterprises with tools like Copilot and Copilot Studio, which allow for the creation of customized agents even without writing code.This is where agent computing and the building of an open agentic web come into play: AI that works autonomously on specific tasks, interacting with other agents and with people. For businesses, this means less wasted time and more support in decision-making processes. But are they ready to share power with an algorithm? AI isn't just changing tools; it's also transforming roles, responsibilities, and leadership styles.Beyond Human Voice: The AI Revolution in Speech SynthesisAlessandro Conca, Go-To-Market Enterprise Director at ElevenLabsToday’s AI can talk like us, sometimes even better. Voice cloning and speech synthesis have become so advanced that it’s often hard to tell an artificial voice from a real one. That opens big doors in communication, accessibility, and creativity.But it also raises new questions: what does authenticity mean when a machine can perfectly mimic your voice? And who’s responsible if a cloned voice spreads misinformation? Technology is moving fast, but awareness and regulation need to keep up.What Drives Us at Work? Engagement & AIAlessandro Petrillo, CEO of H-FARM Business SchoolAs AI becomes more embedded in our daily work lives, does it still make sense to talk about engagement? Consider this striking stat: only 23% of workers worldwide feel truly engaged.This is exactly where AI could become an ally—supporting training, helping ask the right questions, and reinforcing motivation, personal growth, and authentic communication between people and organizations. AI stops being just a “replacement machine” and becomes a tool for staying relevant, upskilling and reskilling, and rediscovering our role in the process. It’s a call to ask more, from ourselves and from the machines.Reframing the Future: Dialogue Between Art and AIGianpaolo Barozzi, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer for People, Purpose, and Policy at CiscoWhen art meets AI, it’s more than aesthetics, it’s a meeting of two intelligences. The NAKED AI project by Cisco and Logotel explored this through a powerful question: what does it mean to create in the age of algorithms? Artists, designers, philosophers, and engineers came together to interrogate the creative process, not just replicate it. If art reveals the possible and tech gives it form, society is the space where it becomes real. In this new world, art must serve as our oracle, guiding us through complexity with imagination and conscience.Startup 5.0: Talent, Tech, TerritoryPresented by Zeno Tosoni, Manager at H-FARM Entrepreneurship & Startup CenterEmerals is the largest GTA V roleplay community in Europe, a virtual world that blends gaming and the metaverse. ➩ One of its co-founders is Michele Mangiacotti, a student at H-FARM College.Rosso is a community that encourages Gen Z to donate blood and plasma by simplifying and digitizing the entire process. ➩ One of the co-founders is Chiara Schettino, a former student at H-FARM College.Math Legacy is a video game that helps students learn math and enables teachers to create tests and track progress. ➩ It was selected for FuturED 2024, the EdTech acceleration program by CDP Venture Capital and H-FARM.The Journey of the FutureLorenzo Luporini, Author and Host, and the voices of WeGeneration, our project with Audi exploring innovation through the eyes of young people.The car is no longer just a vehicle, it’s part of our digital life. AI is turning the driving experience into something intelligent, predictive, and responsive. This shift goes beyond electric motors: we’re talking personalized experiences and almost invisible interfaces. The design challenge isn’t just about machines, it’s about how we move, think, and interact. What once was just transportation is now a platform for human connection and smart living.AI & Design: Who’s Leading Whom?Matteo Battiston, Chief Design Officer at EssilorLuxottica, and Gavin Ivester, Senior Director, Design & UX at CiscoAI isn’t doing the designing—at least, not yet. But it’s everywhere now: suggesting ideas, writing copy, generating images, sketching out interfaces. The risk is that everything starts to look the same, that design loses that edge of unpredictability and personality that makes it feel alive.AI can be a big help, but only if it stays in its place. That’s why we need designers who know how to work with these tools, who know when to trust them and when to push back, who bring taste, intuition, and critical thinking to the table. AI doesn’t take space away from designers, but it does ask them to shift gears: it’s no longer just about knowing how to make things, but knowing how to choose.Modular Robots for Smarter Construction SitesEdoardo Romiti, Researcher at Humanoids & Human-Centered Mechatronics line (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia)Construction is still one of the least digitized industries out there, with ongoing problems like safety issues, frequent mistakes, and very slow innovation. Just to give an idea: over the last 20 years, productivity in construction has gone up by only 1% a year—compared to 3.6% in manufacturing (McKinsey, 2024).But things are starting to change. The European CONCERT project has developed modular, Lego-style robots that can be set up in a few hours, reconfigured quickly, and used through a no-code interface—by people already working on site. In Krakow, for example, these robots drilled walls, smoothed surfaces, and moved materials during the construction of a hospital, either on their own or alongside human workers.When a Brand Becomes Intelligent: It Thinks, Acts, and InteractsDavide Bartolucci, CEO of SHADO, H-FARM’s media companyAI has made something possible that, until recently, felt like science fiction: a brand identity that responds, learns, and adapts. Identity is no longer just a logo or tone of voice, it becomes the interface of the entire experience, an intelligent brand. A few real examples from SHADO’s work:Talk to the Maestro: an AI-powered experience about Venice for Expo 2025 Osaka.TRU: a conversational avatar that gives brands a voice and personality through personalized interaction.Virtual avatars for the TV series The Sea Beyond: they retell the story, generate new content, and engage directly with fans. Rebuilding Trust in the Age of Artificial MindsEma Lovšin, Project & Business Development Manager at OriginTrailAs AI systems generate text, images, and even decisions, a key question arises: can we trust what we see, read, and use? Building more trustworthy AI begins with traceable, verifiable information. That’s where technologies like OriginTrail’s Decentralized Knowledge Graph come in, allowing us to trace data origins and preserve integrity. Use cases include managing railway safety in Switzerland, monitoring Walmart’s production factories, and tracking donations to NGOs. In a world where the line between real and artificial grows thinner, trust becomes a matter of data and infrastructure, not just intention.