After a slight decline in 2024, the smart working is growing againIn 2025, Italian smart workers will be about 3,575 million, up 0,6% year-over-year. This is a sign that remote working is now part of the system, not a passing fad, but a consolidated model. According to new research fromSmart Working Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, presented at the conference “Smart working in the age of AI: opportunities and challenges towards the work of the future”, the the push comes above all from the public sector and large companies.
Public administration on the rise, large companies in the running
In Public Administration, smart workers reach 555 thousand, equal to 17% of employees, with an 11% jump compared to 2024. This sustained growth brings smart working initiatives to 67% of administrations, six points more than last year. In private, 53% of large enterprise employees now work in hybrid or fully remote mode., for a total of 1,945 million people (+1,8%). Here, 95% of companies have adopted structured projects, with defined policies and consolidated guidelines.
La the situation changes radically among SMEsLess than half (45%) plan smart working arrangements, often informal and based on direct agreements with managers. The decline is sharp, -7,7% in small businesses and -4,8% in microbusinesses. Overall, smart workers in SMEs represent just 8% of the workforce.
A hybrid model now mature
Post-pandemic smart working has stabilized on a hybrid model, which alternates in-person and remote working based on organizational and personal needs. The season of emergency experimentation is over. Smart working is now an integral part of corporate culture.
According to the Observatory, the majority of employees use it consistently The ability to work from home. In large companies, only 15% work remotely less than expected, often due to operational needs or emergencies. In public administration, the percentage rises to 28%, while in SMEs, behavior is more varied, with a share of 15% working remotely even more than agreed upon, thanks to the flexibility of informal models.
Untapped potential: up to 6,5 million smart workers
Italian smart working, although stable, has not yet expressed its full potentialAccording to the research, one in five workers (21%) among those who always work in person believe they can carry out at least half of their tasks remotely with the same effectiveness. Translated into numbers, up to 3 million new potential smart workers, which would bring Italy back close to the record of 6,5 million reached during the pandemic.
Managers' challenges and the role of AI
For Mariano Corso, scientific director of the Observatory, "smart working in Italy is now a consolidated reality, especially in large companies". The real challenge, however, for managers is no longer deciding "whether" to adopt it, but how to make it evolve: "the objective – explains Corso – is building a virtuous balance between on-site and remote work, avoiding "obvious" routines that reduce effectiveness and the drive for improvement. To fully exploit the potential of smart working, it is necessary to strengthen the ability to work towards objectives and hold people accountable for results.
Along the same lines Fiorella Crespi, director of the Observatory, who emphasizes the increasingly close connection between smart working and technological innovation: "In a country where the workforce is shrinking and aging, smart working can become a strategic lever to support productivity and well-being. Artificial intelligence, if used with vision, frees up resources and allows us to focus on higher value-added activities. However, if poorly managed, it risks fueling the perception of substitutability and undermining motivation, especially among younger people."
The right to disconnect and new forms of flexibility
The research also highlights one of the main critical issues of smart working: the difficulty “switching off”35% of smart workers admit to suffer from overworking, compared to 30% of workers always present. To protect the right to disconnect, almost half of large companies (49%) have introduced measures , from unavailable hours to bans on sending emails outside of normal business hours. In the public sector, these protections apply to as many as 78% of administrations.
Finally, among workers who cannot count on smart working, growing interest in flexible working hours and short work weeks, which today only concerns 10% of large organizations, often still in the experimental phase.
Lo Italian smart working has found a new balance between autonomy, productivity, and well-being.But its future will depend on the ability to integrate AI, trust, and collaboration into increasingly personalized models. Because, as Corso points out, The real question is no longer whether to do smart working, but how to make it truly smart.
