Microsoft Partners with Italian Mint to Protect Prosecco Wine

Microsoft Italy and the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS – the Italian Mint) have launched a strategic collaboration based on artificial intelligence to protect the authenticity of Italian products from counterfeiting. One of the pilot projects for this collaboration relates to the most exported Italian wine in the world, but also the most imitated: Prosecco.

The agreement includes the development of a virtual assistant based on Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot and IPZS’ proprietary models for authenticating products and analysing traceability data.

For the Prosecco pilot, the creation of a generative AI chatbot called Brand Protection Assistant is planned. This tool will verify the authenticity of the product by means of a simple photo, taken with a smartphone camera, of the state seal carried on all bottles of Prosecco. In addition, based on a photo of the product label, the virtual assistant will provide information on origin, characteristics and pairings. The intention is for the pilot project to be replicable across all ‘Made in Italy’ products.