by Claudia Segre
7 November 2025,
Digitalisation can reduce inequalities, improve inclusion and time management for citizens and businesses, but in Italy, the resources invested do not address the root of the problem. Let’s look at Estonia, where a newborn automatically receives a tax code, the mother receives benefits, and the doctor receives an updated health record. All online, and in a matter of minutes.
We are all ready to rave about our “ONLIFE” daily lives, but the numbers remain stark when we consider that 90% of Italians are connected, but only 46% of those aged between 16 and 74 have basic digital skills. What’s more, according to Openpolis, even the “most promising” age group – those between 16 and 29 – only reaches 58.5%, well below the European average of 70.7%. According to the EIGE, women in Italy have lower levels of digital skills (such as algorithmic/software problem-solving) than men. Furthermore, not only is there an overall lag in digital skills, but there is also a gender gap, which is linked to female labour participation, still stuck at 54%.
While there is no doubt that digitalisation can reduce inequalities, improve inclusion and time management for citizens and businesses, the question is whether the resources poured into the digitalisation of public administration can do little if the root of the problem is not addressed.
Let us look at Estonia, where a newborn automatically receives a tax code, the mother receives benefits, and the doctor receives an updated health record. Everything is done online, in a matter of minutes. This is evidence of a model in which technology is not an end in itself, but a tool for social welfare and economic competitiveness. From 2025, all Estonian public services will be 100% digital, with a system based on robust electronic identity and interoperability between administrations. But of course, this is a small country.
Italy, with its PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and digital ID, has embarked on a similar path, but the challenge remains in data governance and public trust. Every document that is no longer on paper, every piece of data that does not have to be re-entered, saves time and money. Estonia calculates a benefit equivalent to 1,400 man-years: less bureaucracy, more productivity. The simplicity of digital public services has created a fertile ecosystem for start-ups, SMEs, and social innovation. An efficient public administration, therefore, generates trust and people feel protected, can act without bureaucratic obstacles, participation in the labour market increases, the quality of health services improves, time management improves, and the quality of life experienced, not just perceived, increases. And while we have taken important steps forward with SPID, CIE, and PagoPA, we have also taken a few steps backwards, with the fragmentation of registers and the lack of interoperability between institutions continuing to hinder full transformation.
The clearest example of the results that can be achieved is there for all to see with Poste Italiane, which provides an integrated SuperAPP, including the PostePay App, BancoPosta App and Ufficio Postale App, which is one of the SPID providers, reaching over 40 million Italians and efficiently managing 25 million daily contacts by building a truly integrated ecosystem of services: financial, postal, insurance, energy and telecommunications. Europe itself, with its new European digital identity (EUDI Wallet), is aiming for a digital union of public services, but here too, without a common governance framework, there is a risk of falling short. Digitalisation only works if citizens can interact with the state as a single entity — not with a thousand different offices that do not communicate with each other.
Automation frees up energy, but true innovation must first and foremost be cultural. Continuous training is needed for civil servants, as well as digital inclusion programmes for the elderly, workers, vulnerable families, and rural areas. When done fairly, digitalisation becomes a right of citizenship: it allows everyone to access opportunities and services without discrimination. The lesson from Estonia is clear: digitisation is a social policy as well as an economic one. When the state becomes proactive — anticipating the needs of its citizens — a new relationship of trust is created. And the example of the Italian Post Office must lead us to make choices that economise structural efforts, perhaps by creating a comprehensive and forward-looking dialogue. Any structural push will be effective if the population is ready to embrace its peculiarities. A digital Italy must take care of its citizens with transparent, accessible, and secure services that improve the quality of daily life; only in this way will it have a virtuous effect on the economic well-being of the country, and technology will become an ally of inclusive progress.
