Angelini Academy starts €2m research program with UCL study on AI and workplace learning

The three-year program begins with a UCL research project tracking how managers learn, retain and apply new skills as AI becomes more embedded in workplace decision-making

Angelini Academy and UCL will study how AI interacts with the cognitive processes involved in workplace learning

Angelini Academy has partnered with University College London (UCL) on a three-year research project examining what happens to workplace learning when artificial intelligence becomes part of how employees think, work and make decisions.

The project is the first in a wider three-year research program in which Angelini Academy plans to invest around €2 million. Rather than focusing only on whether AI can make training faster or more efficient, the UCL research will examine how it affects the cognitive effort involved in learning and whether employees continue to develop the understanding needed to apply new knowledge independently.

Angelini Academy is the corporate academy of multinational group Angelini Industries, which employs around 5,600 people across 21 countries in health, industrial technology and consumer goods. The Academy has increasingly positioned research alongside executive education as part of its work on skills and the changing workplace.

Researchers will follow several groups of managers through Angelini Academy training programs and into the period afterwards, when participants begin applying what they have learned in their jobs.

The study will use cognitive tests, physiological measurements and, where possible, neuroimaging techniques to examine how factors including working memory, stress and sleep affect learning and its subsequent use in the workplace.

AI adds another variable. Researchers will investigate whether using the technology strengthens learning or allows people to avoid some of the cognitive effort on which deeper understanding depends.

Joe Devlin, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, says: “Learning always requires a degree of difficulty and effort, and we do not yet know how far artificial intelligence can reduce that effort before understanding gives way to simply accessing answers.”

He adds: “Much of what we know comes from studies with students and from laboratory experiments. Few organisations are willing to open up their training programmes to this kind of analysis, which is why we are particularly pleased that Angelini Academy has chosen to do so.”

Testing AI inside real management training

Angelini Academy says the research will operate alongside its existing learning programs, giving the researchers workplace settings in which to test new approaches rather than relying only on laboratory studies. The findings will then feed back into the Academy's training offer.

Andrea Prencipe, President of Angelini Academy, describes the project as an example of collaborative research in which a business question is turned into a scientific study developed with a university:

“Angelini Academy's programmes become both the subject of study and a laboratory in which to experiment with new approaches to learning,” he says. “By combining scientific method with a company's real-world experience, the research helps to rethink education, management training and the future of work.”

The partnership comes as employers increase their use of AI while also facing pressure to keep workforce skills current. Figures cited by Angelini Academy from Deloitte indicate that 82% of companies in Italy plan to increase AI investment over the next 12 months, while 92% expect productivity gains from adoption.

Separately, the Cegos International Barometer cited by the Academy found that Italian HR managers expect one in four jobs could be affected by skills obsolescence within three years, with AI identified as the main cause.

Those figures describe employer expectations rather than the effects of AI on learning itself. The UCL project is intended to examine a less established part of that picture: how people acquire and retain knowledge when AI can increasingly provide answers, recommendations and support during cognitive tasks.

Further research planned around skills and AI

The UCL study sits within a broader research agenda planned by Angelini Academy. Future projects with academic partners are expected to examine skills gaps in sectors including life sciences and robotics, as well as how training models need to change for people working increasingly closely with AI.

Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, CEO of Angelini Industries, says: “Our investment in the PhD programme reflects the Group's desire to understand, and help guide, the change brought about by new technologies.”

Angelini Academy has already incorporated AI into some of its executive programs, co-creation work with younger generations and research activity.

More than 500 Angelini Industries employees participated in Academy training during 2025, accounting for around 10,000 hours of training. 

In 2026, the Academy also began opening some opportunities to external participants through Angelini Academy Gateway, a €1 million initiative providing 10 scholarships for IE Business School's International MBA, each paired with an internship at one of the group's operating companies.

The UCL partnership is the first research project within Angelini Academy's planned €2 million, three-year program.