For three days, The Wharf in Washington became the meeting point between global business and G20 governments. B20 is the official forum representing the business community within the G20, and its purpose is to translate business experience into policy recommendations addressed to governments. In their own words, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes it “as a platform that brings business proposals directly to G20 leaders and facilitates dialogue between CEOs and heads of government”. The 2026 edition carries particular significance because the United States holds the G20 presidency, with the B20 serving as its business counterpart. For the first time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hosting the B20, with Suzanne P. Clark and Ross Perot Jr. serving as co-chairs and Kevin Brady as Sherpa.

The summit took place from November 9 to 11, and according to the organizers, the participating leaders represent 85 percent of global GDP. The program unfolded across several venues at The Wharf: The Anthem hosted the plenary sessions, while District Pier accommodated networking areas and a second stage. Tuesday's plenary opened with a keynote address by Kevin Brady, while Wednesday's program concluded with the handover ceremony. The B20 will now pass to the United Kingdom for 2027, while the next major milestone will be the G20 Leaders' Summit in Miami in mid-December.

The real substance of the B20, however, lies in the preparatory work. The summit marks the culmination of a year of meetings, driven by the task forces: four working groups develop recommendations to be presented to G20 governments on economic growth, innovation, trade, and energy. The task force leadership includes executives from companies such as Citadel, Dow, GE Vernova, and Amazon, with a particular focus on removing barriers to investment. The B20 therefore provides a structured channel for an agenda that has already been defined, explaining both the effectiveness of the format and the criticism of its predominantly national orientation.

Within this framework, Italy has a visible role. Cesare Maltese, Executive Director and Co-Founder of We Partner, considers the event heavily U.S.-centric. In his view, it should have translated into concrete initiatives, particularly in artificial intelligence and its application in sectors subject to U.S. regulation. On this front, however, he sees gaps and limited involvement from international stakeholders. His starting point is the quality of Italy's business offering, characterized by innovative excellence and a standard of work that is difficult to replicate. The problem, he explains, is gaining access to an extremely complex market in which each state has its own regulatory framework. Ideas are not lacking, but a practical structure is needed: companies must identify areas of complementarity, develop them, and only then bring them to the American market. Today, he argues, many businesses struggle with what he describes as a logistical nightmare. The solution he proposes is to bring Italian expertise and quality into sectors where they can help Italian companies operate more effectively.

Massimo Ruffolo, Founder, CEO, and Chief Product Officer of Altilia, interpreted the event instead as an opportunity to focus on trusted technologies and the concept of ethical AI. He describes a model based on an architecture trained on ethical datasets and comparative morality, with human dignity at its core and cultural background as a second layer. It is an approach to AI designed to make technology adapt to users, rather than the other way around, following what he describes as an orthogonal approach.

According to Ruffolo, the project received an extremely positive response, characterized by openness and a warm welcome. It has already been presented to the Italian AI community in Silicon Valley, and the next stop will be Montreal, where fundraising and business development activities are planned. The stated objective is to change the way AI is developed, promoting an AI system that guides rather than simply seeks to please its users.

Roberto Race, Secretary-General of Competere.Eu, is involved in the work of the Innovation Task Force and approaches the issue from a regulatory perspective. He shares the principle that decisions on artificial intelligence should be based on evidence rather than ideology or short-term pressure, and argues that innovation, open trade, and human development must be pursued together. For this reason, he explains, the B20 calls for the value of AI to be measured also in terms of decision-making quality and its impact on work, while keeping digital trade free from tariffs. The challenge for Europe, he adds, is to establish rules that are proportionate to risk without sacrificing competitiveness. Italy can contribute to this effort through its businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.

For HIG, taking part in the B20 marks a new step in technology cooperation between Italy and the United States. We are bringing four proposals to make AI trustworthy: govern every agent with traceable identities, permissions, and actions; train models to respect both human dignity and data security; measure compliance with stated principles through evaluations open to different models and overseen by international experts; and keep control in the hands of those who use these systems, from nations to small businesses,” said Andrea Gumina, Global Head of Institutional Affairs at HIG and President of the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation

A more cultural reading comes from Fabio De Felice, founder of Protom S.p.A., Professor of Engineering at the University of Naples Parthenope and a member of the Innovation Task Force, who has taken part in the B20 for ten years. Despite the very different industrial models around the table, he notes a shared perception: technological acceleration is outpacing our ability to understand and govern its consequences, a concern reflected in the final B20 statement’s focus on large-scale AI adoption, digitalization and skills. “The real risk of artificial intelligence is not that machines learn to think like humans, but that humans stop thinking because machines do it,” De Felice says. The challenge, in his view, is therefore not only technological but above all cultural, and it depends on a willingness to learn to govern the future rather than passively endure it.

The perspectives address similar issues, mainly AI and its regulation, from different angles. For Italian businesses, the key question is whether their recognized quality can translate into a stable presence in the U.S. market. The B20 is where recommendations take shape, but, as Maltese points out, the most difficult part remains their practical implementation. The real test will be to see what world leaders take from Washington to Miami.