Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes and, besides being among the most luminous sources of radiation in the Universe, they are also thought to play an important role in the evolution of their host galaxies.  

X-ray emission is an ubiquitous property of AGN and, being produced within a few gravitational radii from the supermassive black hole, it can provide fundamental information about the structure and geometry of the circumnuclear material, as well as on the characteristics of the accretion flow. In my talk I will present recent results on the obscuration and accretion properties of nearby AGN obtained by X-ray and multi-wavelength observations, and discuss future studies that will be possible thanks to the advent of revolutionary X-ray facilities such as XRISM and Athena.