Across Italy, something remarkable is unfolding in healthcare. It’s not loud or headline-grabbing — it’s a quiet, deliberate shift shaped by clinicians, researchers, and IT leaders working side by side to bring better care to patients. Technology, especially AI, is playing a growing role, but it’s the people driving the transformation that make it meaningful.

In recent months, my collaborations with hospitals, cancer institutes, and technology partners have revealed a pattern. There’s a growing appetite not just to explore AI, but to embed it into daily practice. In one research centre, teams are training AI to enhance diagnostic accuracy in oncology. In another, a regional hospital is experimenting with federated learning to securely collaborate across institutions without moving sensitive data. These aren’t experiments for the sake of innovation — they’re focused, real-world efforts to solve persistent problems in diagnosis, data sharing, and patient outcomes.

The path isn’t without challenges. Italy’s healthcare system, managed regionally and funded publicly, creates disparities in digital maturity. Procurement cycles can be slow, and legacy systems still hold back some organisations. But despite these barriers, progress is steady. There’s a sense of commitment among clinicians and health leaders — a shared understanding that data and AI can make care more precise, more timely, and more connected.

What’s encouraging is how this momentum is being supported by thoughtful partnerships. At Dell Technologies, the focus isn’t just on infrastructure. It’s about helping healthcare organisations, regardless of size or starting point, gain access to advanced tools in a way that is secure, scalable, and grounded in clinical needs. Whether through federated learning pilots, HPC platforms for genomics, or smart hospital initiatives that bring data to the point of care, the aim is to put AI to work where it matters most.

The idea of democratising AI — making it usable, not just available — is at the heart of this. In healthcare and life sciences, that means building platforms that support real-time decision-making, enable secure collaboration, and meet regulatory demands. The goal is to ensure AI isn’t limited to research hubs or specialist teams. It should be something every hospital can tap into, responsibly and with confidence.

Italy may still be early in parts of this journey, but the direction is clear. Progress is being made not just in technology adoption, but in mindset — a willingness to reimagine how care is delivered and supported.

In the end, transformation in healthcare is rarely driven by tools alone. It’s the clinicians adapting workflows, the researchers pushing new models, and the IT teams building bridges between old systems and new capabilities. In Italy, those bridges are being built — one conversation, one pilot, one patient-first decision at a time.