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Swiss SMEs do not expect AI-related job cuts

Published on September 26, 2024

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Swiss SMEs do not expect AI-related job cuts Keystone-SDA

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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland are prepared to embrace artificial intelligence, with most predicting minimal job losses.

This content was published on September 26, 2024 - 14:47

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According to a survey conducted by Axa, only a small proportion of bosses of companies with 5 to 250 employees expect to be able to do without staff despite the increasing use of AI applications.

In the information and communication sector, where AI is likely to provide the greatest time savings according to the study, only 7% of SMEs anticipate job savings.

+ Read how AI affects Switzerland’s creative workforce

“Even though AI applications are primarily used in communication today, AI tasks such as translations or correspondence appear to be used more as a support than a replacement”, Kathrin Braunwarth, Head of Data, Technology & Innovation at Axa Switzerland, was quoted as saying in the press release published on Thursday.

Employees would hand over “tedious and somewhat tedious tasks” to AI applications. This would simplify work and save time, but not necessarily threaten jobs.

In other sectors, the fear of job losses is greater. For example, 22% of companies in the manufacturing sector, 18% in trade and 14% in industry expect job cuts. “In these sectors, there is a relatively large amount of standardisable work, such as production, sorting or logistics tasks, which explains the high potential for job cuts,” Axa explains.

Larger companies more positive

When assessing AI applications in terms of business development, however, the differences depend not only on the industry, but in particular on the size of the SMEs. According to the press release, over half of the companies surveyed with more than 50 employees see artificial intelligence as a positive development.

Among medium-sized companies with up to 49 employees, this proportion drops to 41%. Among SMEs with five to nine employees, only 27% of respondents still think that AI is useful to them. A quarter of respondents from small companies even consider AI to be a threat. This fear is far less prevalent among medium-sized (15%) and large companies (6%).

“A meaningful implementation of AI often requires resources, such as technology and employees who know how to deal with it. Larger SMEs are more likely to have these resources at their disposal than smaller SMEs,” says Braunwarth.

Is artificial intelligence an advantage or a disadvantage for workers?

What is your experience with AI at work? Have you already used it? Has it helped you work better? Or has it caused you more stress, more work or caused you to lose your job? Tell us about your experiences!

Sep 11, 2024

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Translated from German by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

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