Trend analysis is a crucial aspect of the work done by the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. To understand what is cutting-edge requires an awareness of the world around you – and what other innovators are doing.

The trend analysis department works in synergy with the AI lab and neuroscience lab, to predict the shape of the future and pass that knowledge on to clients.

But how do you analyse trends, particularly in a world that is moving so fast due to technology and changing daily under the strain of the Covid-19 pandemic?

“We try to take a long view, while not forgetting to analyse the phenomena that are happening in the next month,” says Stefano Perrone, head of innovation discovery in the trends and technologies department of the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center.

“If you look at technology, you can see that it is moving very, very fast in every sector, both industrial and consumer,” he says.

“Our goal is to help our clients, SMEs and corporates, to foster innovation and an understanding of what will happen in their industry in the next three to five years.”

The trend analysis team uses a variety of data-collection and analysis methods to get to the heart of what is happening today – and what is likely to happen tomorrow – in areas from smart mobility to cryptocurrency. It keeps a close eye on start-up investments, which tend to drive the development of new technologies, as well as analysing data sets about markets.

An example of such work is an impressive 400-page in-depth analysis of smart mobility. “Mobility is one of the big transformation factors for present society, but also for upcoming decades,” says Daniele Borghi, innovation analyst at the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and who worked on the report. “By 2050, more than 70 per cent of people will live in mega-cities. This is a total change in our way of living […] and will require great changes in the way we move [around].”

The impact of Covid-19 means that the work of the team has become not only more complex, but also more urgent. “Of course, it has changed a lot and accelerated the approach to technology from many different companies,” says Perrone, who cites the 90 per cent of companies in Italy that have switched to smart working as a result of the pandemic.

Whatever the circumstances, the team is primed to deliver the knowledge that will help companies develop resilient innovation strategies to protect their futures.