AI Digitalization Incentives for Italian SMEs 2026

Piano Transizione 5.0 was the Italian government's flagship incentive for 2024–2025: tax credits up to 45% for companies combining AI and digital automation with measurable energy savings, with a €6.3 billion budget. As of 2026 its resources are exhausted and bookings closed; the successor for new 2026 investments is the iper-ammortamento (a super-deduction up to +180%).

Businesses that invest in new capital goods listed in annexes IV and V of Law 199/2025 (tangible and intangible Industry 4.0 assets), completed between 1 January 2026 and 30 September 2028. The benefit is a higher deductible cost, so its value depends on having taxable income now or in later years. Nuova Sabatini, by contrast, is reserved for SMEs.

WhatsApp automation and AI chatbots could qualify for Transizione 5.0 tax credits when part of a broader digitalisation project achieving measurable energy savings, relevant for projects booked before it closed. For new 2026 investments the successor is the iper-ammortamento (a super-deduction on interconnected 4.0 assets).

Software can qualify when it is among the intangible assets in annex V and is interconnected with the company's production or supply-chain management system. The uplift applies to depreciation and finance-lease instalments, so how a given purchase is booked matters: check each case with your tax advisor. We supply the technical description and the interconnection evidence the sworn appraisal needs.

A preliminary notice to the GSE; then, within 60 days of the GSE's positive outcome, a confirmation reporting the payment that brings the deposit to 20% of the cost; then a completion notice once the asset is interconnected, by 15 November 2028. Missing any of these three deadlines voids the procedure. A sworn technical appraisal and an accounting certification are required, plus a periodic notice by 20 January and a supplementary one by 30 June each year (DM MIMIT of 7 May 2026, art. 3).