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SMEs

SMEs and the paradox of the small: competing on scale is lost from the start, but European regulation can be their industrial strategy.

I work in a small tech company in Pescara: every Monday we have an idea and every Wednesday we find out OpenAI has already announced it. Competing on scale is lost from the start, and I don’t say that with resignation. The paradox of the small is that the AI Act, CRA, NIS2 and PLD, read as an industrial strategy, favour whoever can prove what they have in the house over whoever is big. Here I write about digitalisation projects that dissolve, about hiring in 2026, and about ENISA scores that are not conformity.

26.08 2026
№ 88

AI AI Agents Digital Sovereignty Software Development SME Work

The Moat Is Not the Data

Thomson Reuters built its model using less than ten percent of its own content: the hard part was not the corpus, it was deciding what learning correctly from it should mean. Perhaps the advantage of vertical AI is not the data others lack, but the judgment criteria others have not yet had enough experience to build.

16′ reading time

3,599 words

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17.07 2026
№ 79

CRA Compliance ENISA SME Software Development EU Regulation

A Score Is Not Proof of Conformity

An Advanced rating measures an organisation’s maturity. It does not show that a specific product conforms to the CRA. The distinction is not self-assessment versus outside scrutiny. It is diagnosis versus a declaration that carries responsibility.

10′ reading time

2,118 words

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04.07 2026
№ 77

Compliance AI Act CRA PLD EU Regulation Software Development SME

Compliance Doesn't Fail for Lack of Rules, It Fails for Lack of Inventory

Five European regulations, written by different hands for different sectors, are converging on the same demand: prove you know what you have in the house. Whoever can't answer isn't non-compliant, they're ungovernable. And the inventory that's needed isn't compiled: it's generated.

7′ reading time

1,416 words

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17.06 2026
№ 74

AI Act Compliance EU Regulation AI SME GDPR Digital Sovereignty

The Digital Omnibus Is Not an Amnesty

Brussels moved a few AI Act deadlines and confirmed everything else. For a small or mid-sized IT company that had just started getting serious about compliance, this is the moment to accelerate, not to slow down.

14′ reading time

2,915 words

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14.03 2026
№ 40

AI Leadership SME Hiring

Hiring in 2026: you don't need to use AI, you need to govern it

In SMEs, AI isn’t a tech topic. It’s a cross-functional skill: knowing how to govern it, assess its output, and use it to do new things.

10′ reading time

2.198 words

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11.03 2026
№ 39

Compliance Cybersecurity AI SME

The Smallness Paradox: Long Live European Regulation

Between the AI Act, CRA and NIS2, Europe is rewriting the rules: it’s not who runs fastest that wins, but who builds serious, secure, accessible software.

11′ reading time

2.311 words

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21.02 2026
№ 23

Digitalisation SME Product Management Digital Transformation

Signs of a Digitalisation Project Headed for a Stall

Five early signs that often precede failure: an absent sponsor, vague goals, confused decisions, an imposed stack, and useless KPIs.

6′ reading time

1,310 words

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