[1][2][3] Agnelli's reputation among the Italian public was comparable to that of John F. Kennedy Jr. in the United States; in the words of Alan Friedman, he was "rich, strikingly handsome, always smiling and the leading voice of his generation.

[5] Agnelli enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, as a member of the class of 1986; his thesis was about the Middle East,[6] and he graduated in international relations.

[7] In the words of Lee Marshall, Agnelli was often tipped as "Europe's most eligible bachelor" even though in reality he had "little interest in the playboy lifestyle".

He was also nicknamed il Delfino of the Agnelli House, a title that refers to the custom of the French kings to nickname the eldest son of the royal family and heir to the throne, the Dauphin of France, precisely to underline the fact that he had been publicly recognized as heir to the company of family by Gianni Agnelli.

[5] In the role, Agnelli distanced himself from his family and Italy's business establishment, calling for generational change, advocating for more competition from international investment banks in corporate finance, and pushing for increased transparency in Italian capitalism.

Among other things, he strongly wanted the setting up of a company museum inside the former factories; this wish, named after him, will open its doors four years after his death.

"[16] He was interested in politics and was an interlocutor of many politicians, including one of the founders of Italy's Democratic Party in 2007, Walter Veltroni, thanks to his innovative ideas and his attention to ethics and people's well-being.

In his entrepreneurial activity, he was among the first to leave space for the values of the company, to protect them and put them first, which was considered ahead of the times, and projecting the family business towards a socially sustainable development.

He was one of the first entrepreneurs to argue that, in order to continue growing, a company must promote the development of the context in which it is inserted, therefore of the territory and the local community, with a series of targeted investments and relationships with the surrounding realities.

[20][21][22] In 1996, Agnelli married Frances Avery Howe, an Anglo-American architect who he met when they were both students at Brown University.