Can Switzerland turn trusted AI into its next competitive advantage?
An EY survey on the use of AI in the workplace examines how organizations can scale AI through trust, resilience and digital sovereignty.
Can Switzerland turn trusted AI into its next competitive advantage?
An EY survey on the use of AI in the workplace examines how organizations can scale AI through trust, resilience and digital sovereignty.
Executive summary
Switzerland has crossed the threshold from AI experimentation to widespread adoption: 89% of respondents* use AI in their daily work and around 70% have access to integrated workplace tools. Yet only 9% say AI has fundamentally transformed their strategy or business model. This gap is the defining leadership challenge of the next phase. Sustainable advantage will not come from deploying more tools, but from redesigning how decisions are made, work is performed and value is created – all while strengthening cybersecurity, data governance and digital sovereignty. With 29% of organizations allowing private AI accounts and 56% supporting sovereign Swiss AI infrastructure, trust is no longer a constraint to innovation; it is becoming the foundation for scale.
Four core insights
1. Adoption is high, transformation is limited
AI has become a standard workplace tool, supporting ideation, drafting, information structuring and decisions. Yet most organizations remain focused on function-specific deployments, pilots and proofs of concept rather than redesigned processes or new business models.
Leadership perspective: The next productivity frontier lies in rethinking end-to-end workflows and decision rights around AI. Organizations that treat AI as an operating-model transformation – not an IT deployment – will be better positioned to convert adoption into durable advantage.
2. Unmanaged access creates material risk
Private AI accounts are permitted in 29% of organizations and are the only available option for 8%. This gives companies limited visibility into how sensitive information is processed, stored or shared.
Leadership perspective: Informal AI use is a signal of unmet demand as much as a control failure. Leaders should respond by pairing clear guardrails with approved tools that are sufficiently useful and accessible to become the default.
3. Digital sovereignty is a business requirement
More than half of respondents1 consider Swiss or European data protection compliance and regional data processing business-critical. Local data processing received an average importance score of 8.7 out of 10.
Leadership perspective: Digital sovereignty should be treated as a source of strategic optionality rather than a compliance exercise. Trusted local infrastructure and predictable legal frameworks can enable organizations to innovate with greater confidence while reducing concentration and geopolitical risk.
4. Skills and secure data foundations will determine value
Data quality, data silos, security and data protection are the leading barriers to scale. Workforce effects remain mixed: 18% report new AI-related roles while 7% report job reductions and 11% say vacancies are no longer being refilled because of AI.
Leadership perspective: AI readiness is ultimately an organizational capability. Companies that align high-quality data, secure technology and human judgment will learn faster – and capture value more consistently – than those investing in any one dimension in isolation.
Priority actions for business leaders
1. Define the value agenda: Prioritize scalable use cases linked to measurable business outcomes.
2. Strengthen governance: Establish approved tools, clear accountability and controls for data use, model risk and compliance.
3. Build trusted infrastructure: Assess data location, cloud dependencies and sovereign infrastructure options.
4. Improve data readiness: Address data quality, ownership, access and silos before scaling AI.
5. Invest in people: Combine broad AI literacy with role-specific training in secure and responsible use.
Outlook
Switzerland’s opportunity is not to replicate the scale-driven AI strategies of larger markets. It is to define a distinctive model of trusted acceleration: one that combines advanced adoption with sovereignty, institutional reliability and responsible governance. If business and policy leaders can turn these strengths into faster execution instead of additional complexity, Switzerland could establish a compelling blueprint for how high-trust economies compete in the AI era.
* About the survey
The EY survey on the use of AI in the workplace covers 604 respondents working at companies across Switzerland. The sample spans organizations of different sizes: 30% of respondents work at companies with more than 10,000 employees, 25% at companies with 1,000–9,999 employees, 19% at companies with 10–249 employees, 14% at companies with 250–999 employees and 12% at companies with fewer than 10 employees.
Respondents also represent a broad range of industries. Banking accounts for 23% of the sample, followed by industry and manufacturing (10%), technology, media and telecommunications (9%), professional services (9%), and life sciences and pharmaceuticals (8%). Insurance, retail, energy, the public sector and other industries are also represented.