Forum Numerica - Simone Vannuccini : Robots and Innovation – Innovation in Robots?

The presentation will combine two recent studies: the first analyses the impact of robot adoption on firms’ product innovation, to test whether robots in their current form are really an ‘enabling technology’; the second takes a look at how recent advances in AI vision-language-action models are transforming the landscape of robot technology and the companies producing them. The rationale of combining the two studies is to show how technology and economic dynamics co-evolve and cross-shape each other.

Simone Vannuccini is the Chaire de Professeur Junior (JuniorProfessor Chair) in Economics of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation at the Université Côte d'Azur (UCA) and GREDEG-CNRS, France. There, with his team he conducts research and teaching on the topic of Economics and Strategy of AI and technological change more generally. Prof Vannuccini has been holding teaching and research positions at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) of the University of Sussex, Imperial College London, and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany). His research focuses on technology evolution, the economics of AI, industrial dynamics, science, technology and industrial policy, and the economics of digitalisation.