There is a man on stage taking a photo of his own feet. In front of an audience of fashion professionals, he points his smartphone at his shoes, uploads the image to an AI system and asks it to think like a podiatrist: it analyses the shape, identifies any flaws and finds the best trainers for that foot. Then he goes one step further: ‘Find me the best discount, and if you can’t find it now, keep looking until the price suits me.’ In three steps, he’s found the right product at the right price.
THE FUNNEL HAS VANISHED
That journey that digital marketing has been refining for years — the funnel, the clicks, the shop windows, the buttons, the perfect photos — no longer exists in just three steps. And this is no isolated case. Bots have overtaken humans in online navigation: in the fashion e-commerce sector, the number of agents searching for products on behalf of others has quadrupled in a single year. And today, machines produce more content than humans.
So much for the conference trivia. The point is another. What form is innovation taking – an innovation that is no longer on the horizon but already very close at hand?
THREE FORMS OF INTELLIGENCE, ONE ENTRANCE
Futurist Alberto Mattiello, a member of the Scientific Committee of Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags, now distinguishes three distinct categories. There is public AI, trained on public data, which we use to translate an email or plan a holiday. There is corporate AI, fed with company data, where ownership and security of the data remain yours. And there is, the latest arrival, personal AI: it works only with the data that I, as an individual, possess. An assistant that brings together accounts, cards, contacts and appointments — a complete snapshot of one’s finances, something no single bank offers, as well as one’s daily routine and needs. The same applies to health.
The battleground is now a hybrid one: which interface will people turn to — the one that automatically routes requests to the right form of AI, the one that determines people’s future purchases? The big names, from the United States to China, are all racing towards it: Google, Amazon, Apple and many other players are trying to position their own assistant at the centre. And for those in retail, that gateway is the most strategic position there is.
TECHNOLOGY DOES NOT REPLACE, BUT ENHANCES
Innovation does not mean scrapping the artisanal know-how that underpins ‘Made in Italy’; it means expanding it, with processes that are more efficient, traceable, flexible and sustainable. The SAMAB 2026 International Congress in Milan made this clear: for the fashion industry, investing in technology is no longer an option. The sector is worth 87.4 billion euros, of which 40 billion is in clothing alone, with 27.3 billion in exports. And in the first quarter of 2026, the clothing manufacturing sector comprised almost 37,100 active businesses and over 196,700 employees.
This is not just theory. The Italian Internet of Things market reached 10.9 billion in 2025, according to the Milan Polytechnic Observatory: automation, digital twins and real-time monitoring are making their way into factory floors. And the roots run deeper: amongst start-ups, tech manufacturing is now the second pillar of innovation, and here technology does not replace industry, but transforms it by integrating into traditional supply chains. This is precisely what is needed by those who sew an upper or cut leather for a handbag.
INNOVATION THAT PAYS OFF
However, there is innovation and then there is innovation. The kind that generates profit almost never coincides with the kind that makes a splash. This is indirectly demonstrated by venture capital: over ten years, Italian start-ups have raised 9.6 billion euros, rising from 98 million in 2015 to a peak of 2.3 billion in 2022. Then the party came to an end. Since 2023, the market has stabilised above the one-billion mark, becoming more selective: in 2025, there were 204 funding rounds – the highest number of the decade – but with smaller investment amounts. More deals, less easy money.
In short: a shift from growth at any cost to economic sustainability. “More rounds but less average capital means that investors are demanding solid foundations: unit economics, profit margins and clear paths to exit,” explains Simone Pepino, CEO of StartupItalia. It’s the logic of a well-run shoe factory: avoiding the misallocation of production capacity and stock remains, as Marc Sondermann pointed out in Milan, “the most important success factor in the financial statements of our leading companies”. Not the brightest idea. The most solid one.
HALF THE BUSINESS IS ELSEWHERE
Everything we’ve been working on in recent years — the web made up of menus, dashboards and attractive images — is now only half of the digital world. The other half is the web of agents, where artificial intelligence doesn’t click buttons but communicates with one another using its own languages. According to a McKinsey forecast cited at the same conference, within three or four years between 30% and 50% of global consumer trade could take place there. Increasingly, it will not be a human eye choosing your shoes, but an agent comparing style, price and availability. And this applies upstream too: finding suppliers and materials will become the job of software.
RESISTANCE
It would be disingenuous to end on a triumphant note. The adoption of innovative tools, particularly by SMEs, remains hampered by initial costs, a lack of skills, and the difficulty of integrating new systems with existing ones. But the most insidious barrier is cultural: viewing technology as a cost rather than an investment. And European requirements on sustainability, traceability and transparency loom large — not a regulatory quirk, but the new playing field.
Thanks to the agents, the man on stage took a photo of his feet and, in three steps, found his next pair of shoes. One task remains that no artificial intelligence can perform for us: manufacturing a shoe that is worth finding.
