Piedmont's 2026 SME digitalisation voucher. What 25,000 euros buys, if you export.

Piedmont's 2026 SME digitalisation voucher pays 50% to 65% of a digital project, up to 25,000 euros, and names artificial intelligence among the eligible technologies. Applications open at 11:00 on 22 October and are handled in order of arrival. This page answers what the call summaries leave open: what it buys, in a company that exports.

When to apply, and why the first day matters

Submissions open at 11:00 on 22 October 2026, and the ranking follows the order of arrival alone. In the first edition, in 2023, more than 1,200 applications arrived in 40 seconds: 1,339 by midnight on the first day, asking for more than 23 million against the 11 available, according to the IRES Piemonte evaluation.

Point	What the call says
Pre-loading	From 11:00 on 12 October 2026 on ReStart. The pre-loading date does not count towards the ranking (article 8).
Submission	From 11:00 on 22 October to 16:00 on 15 December 2026 (article 8).
Criterion	Chronological order of submission only.
Suspension	The window can close early if applications exceed 120% of the resources (article 3).
Waiting list	Applications that don't make it stay on a list and are processed if resources free up or the scheme is refinanced (article 9).

In 2023 and 2024 the Region refinanced the scheme in December, and paid the waiting list too. That's history, and nobody promises it for 2026: whoever arrives on the first day with the project and the quote ready doesn't need the refinancing.

Who can apply

A micro, small or medium enterprise with a registered office or operating unit in Piedmont, self-employed professionals included, that did not receive the voucher in 2023 or 2024 (article 4). It also needs its chamber of commerce fee paid, a valid DURC, the policy against catastrophic risks and the SELFI4.0 digital self-assessment completed in the last twelve months.

Primary agricultural production, finance and insurance are excluded. A winery or an olive mill that processes is a manufacturing business; for a farm the main ATECO code decides, and the accountant reads it from the company registry extract. Each company submits one application only.

What it buys, if you export: three projects the call names

The call requires at least one technology to be declared from a list of nineteen, or the application is ineligible. Three of them cover the work that an exporting company still does by hand: «AI - NLP and document automation», «generative AI applied to business processes» and «customer relationship management (CRM)» (article 5).

The project	Scope in the call, and what was measured
Orders, packing lists and shipping documents read and filled in by the system	AI - NLP and document automation. It removes the retyping from PDFs, emails and Excel files. On thirty real-world business documents in five languages, 98.7% of fields captured correctly, 6.3 seconds per document: measured on a test system on 4 September 2026.
Importer enquiries drafted, in their language	Generative AI applied to business processes. It removes the same replies written every week in five languages. Across a hundred enquiries, 7.3 seconds from arrival to a draft ready for approval, median: measured on a test system on 4 September 2026.
Foreign contacts in one place	CRM. It removes the trade fair business cards and the enquiries scattered across email, WhatsApp and notebooks. From WhatsApp message to classified contact in 4.3 seconds, measured on real traffic.

Each of the three projects is built on top of the tools you already use, management software included, with a rule set out in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no message reaches a buyer until a person has read and approved it. The first one at work, live, is shown in the demonstration from order to packing list.

How much it's worth: percentages, minimums and maximum

The voucher covers 65% of the spending for a micro business, 60% for a small one and 50% for a medium one, up to 25,000 euros for all (article 3). Below a certain spend the voucher doesn't apply: the minimum is 4,000 euros for micro businesses and 5,000 for small and medium ones.

Business	Percentage, minimum voucher and minimum spend
Micro	65%; voucher from 4,000 euros; spend from 6,153.85 euros
Small	60%; voucher from 5,000 euros; spend from 8,333.33 euros
Medium	50%; voucher from 5,000 euros; spend from 10,000 euros
On top	5 percentage points for a project with other companies and an aggregator; 1 or 2 for a legality rating, a women-led or youth-led business, an innovative SME

In 2023 the average voucher paid was 16,695 euros, on an average spend of about 37,800 euros: that's the calculation on the IRES evaluation data, 17.16 million paid to 1,028 companies. The voucher falls under de minimis, and how much headroom is left is something your accountant knows.

The supplier: what the call requires

For software and licences, article 6 states «No specific requirements are needed» (our translation). For consulting and training, however, the supplier needs one year of activity and three invoiced jobs for different clients in the last three years, or registration among the competence centres; and together they cannot exceed 30% of the project.

The supplier doesn't need an office in Piedmont (FAQ 4.2). Its VAT number and the quote go into the company's application, or it is ineligible, and the work starts after submission: earlier spending doesn't count. Reporting is done once only, within six months of the award.

One point the text leaves open: whether a system developed to measure and delivered with a user licence counts as a capital good or as consulting. Another call from the same chamber of commerce system treats software that needs customising as consulting. The answer moves the 30% ceiling, so ask Unioncamere Piemonte in writing before the quote.

The voucher pays for systems; advertising and commercial promotion are outside eligible spending. Finding importers abroad goes down a different route, covered in finding foreign importers.

If you export at least 3%: the SIMEST grant too

A company with two closed financial years and at least 3% of turnover from exports can also apply for the SIMEST «AI Investments» grant, open since 21 September 2026: a loan from 10,000 euros upwards, with up to 10% non-repayable, over 8 years with 2 years' grace. It applies across Italy, first come first served, while the 200 million reserve lasts.

The requirements, supplier rules and AI Act declaration of the SIMEST grant are read line by line on the page about the SIMEST artificial intelligence grant. Whether the voucher and SIMEST can be used on the same spending is for the two texts and your accountant to say, case by case.