As I started writing this book, I knew it would be no easy quest. The topic has been (and will be) evolving so rapidly that it has required continuous effort to balance offering solid frameworks with exploring technical novelties. No doubt I would never have been able to make it work by myself. At the end of the ride, I feel pervaded by a strong sense of gratitude and debt toward the many people who made this happen.
Writing this book has been possible only thanks to the eye-opening input, the rigorous feedback, and the heartfelt encouragement of so many wonderful people. Although writing the names of some of them doesn’t do them full justice, let me thank Dimitrios Skoufakis, Michele Pacifico (how could I do without his brilliant advice?), Adam Graham, Alessio Villardita, Giuseppe Papaianni, Michael Berthold, Daniele Abbate, Jamilya Baimukhambetova, Roberto Bellotti, Marcello Lando, Fabio Pistilli, Gilberto Grasso, Leonardo Fenizi, Mario Galietti, Nicola Lopez, Antonio Fazzari, Luca Merlo, Nicolas Kerling, Paolo Palazzo, Lorenzo Ricciardi Celsi, Rosaria Silipo, Ermanna Maiuri, Marcin Czajkowski, Alberto Montanari, Tom Davenport, Michelangelo Ferraro, Guy Peri, and all the other amazing friends, colleagues, and leaders who have passionately worked alongside me to create sustainable value by putting AI and data analytics genuinely at the service of people and the real problems they face at work.