Italian AI law 132/2025: what changes for businesses

Law 132 of 23 September 2025 is the Italian law on artificial intelligence, in force since 10 October 2025 ¹. It sits alongside the European AI Act and adds a few rules that directly affect anyone who has employees or works as a professional.

This is not legal advice: it is a map of the points to check.

If you have employees: tell them

Article 11 says that the employer or client must inform the worker about the use of artificial intelligence, in the cases and in the ways set out by the rules on informing workers ².

In practice: if you use AI to organise shifts, assess performance, assign tasks or select candidates, your workers must know. The simplest way is a written notice, updated whenever you change tool.

One of the implementing decrees approved by the Government also provides that decisions on hiring, changing or ending an employment relationship cannot rest on automated processing alone ³.

If you are a professional: tell the client

Article 13 covers intellectual professions, such as lawyers, accountants, consultants and engineers ². It says two things:

• AI may be used only for instrumental and supporting activities, and the professional's own intellectual work must remain predominant ²;
• information about the AI systems used must be given to the client in clear, simple and complete language ².

A line in the engagement letter or the quote saying which tools you use and for what is the easiest way to comply.

Copyright: human work counts

Article 25 protects works of human ingenuity even when they are created with the help of AI, as long as they are the result of the author's intellectual effort ². A text or image produced by AI without a creative contribution from you is on shakier ground. If your content is an asset of yours, keep a record of what you did yourself.

Deepfakes: now a criminal offence

Article 26 adds article 612-quater to the criminal code ². Anyone who causes unjust harm to a person by spreading, without their consent, images, videos or voices falsified with AI risks imprisonment from one to five years ².

For a business this means: no AI-generated voices or faces of real people, not even as a joke or for an internal video, without their written consent.

Who enforces it

Article 20 designates the Agenzia per l'Italia digitale (AgID) and the Agenzia per la cybersicurezza nazionale (ACN) as the national authorities for artificial intelligence ². The powers of Banca d'Italia, CONSOB and IVASS for the financial sector remain ².

The implementing decrees

The law delegated the Government to bring Italian rules into line with the AI Act ². On 4 August 2026 the Council of Ministers gave final approval to two decrees ³. The first, according to the press release, provides for penalties with maximums lower than the European ones and simplified procedures for SMBs ³.

A legislative decree on police and on civil and criminal liability has been in force since 30 September 2026 ⁴. As for the one on authorities and penalties, in August its publication in the Gazzetta was not yet traceable ⁵: before relying on it, check whether it has come out.

What to do now

• If you have employees, write the notice on the use of AI and hand it out.
• If you are a professional, add a line about AI tools to the engagement letter or the quote.
• Do not use AI-generated voices or faces of real people without written consent.
• Reread the list of tools you drew up for the AI Act: the two sets of rules are best checked together.