Autonomous AI use in Switzerland is on the rise

According to Study However, employees are not yet ready to entrust everything to AI. The results show that they prefer humans to carry out tasks such as induction, training and data security. However, the data also suggests that targeted investment in knowledge and education will strengthen confidence in an autonomous AI future.

Switzerland more open to AI

In Switzerland, 28% of respondents stated that they have no reservations about using AI. The study describes this result as significantly different to its northern neighbor Germany (20%). However, the UK (17%) and Ireland (15%) also see more obstacles to the use of AI. Respondents in India have the greatest confidence in AI, with a value of 40%. Surprisingly, almost the same number (24%) in Switzerland are not at all inclined to use AI in the workplace - 25 percent are not willing to use Generative AI.

Major differences between the sectors

A deeper look at the sectors also reveals differences: people in the communications industry are most inclined to use ChatGPT, Gemini and co. Here, 69 percent already use or would use these tools without hesitation. One explanation for this is the type of industry-specific tasks that can be handed over to AI. In general, 19 percent of employees in Switzerland would completely hand over texts for internal communication to AI.

On the other hand, there is the research sector (life sciences and biotechnology): around three quarters of respondents (72%) from this sector are not prepared to use these tools at all.

In the public sector, on the other hand, there is a general willingness, although 56% of respondents have reservations. The main reasons for this are a lack of expertise and the absence of guidelines on how employers should handle generative artificial intelligence. 39% of respondents in this sector are completely averse to the use of AI tools and have no plans to use them for their personal tasks in the future (78%).

Knowledge mainly available among millennials and Gen X

Across all generations, millennials and Gen X are those with the greatest expertise in the technical implementation and use of AI in everyday working life. Gen Z is not one of the generations that knows the most about artificial intelligence and uses it the most. This generation appears to be particularly critical of AI assistants, as 82 percent of Gen Z respondents do not use assistants such as IBM Watson or Microsoft Copilot. Millennials take a very different view: 39% are experimenting with or have already fully integrated such AI assistants into their everyday working lives.

"The results of the study reflect our customer experience: Artificial intelligence is already being used in Swiss companies for many tasks, but in most cases this is not (yet) happening without human intervention," says Gregory Leproux, Senior Director, Solution Engineering at Salesforce Switzerland. "To realize the full potential of trustworthy AI, there is a need for more powerful control mechanisms and policies for responsible generative AI that enable employees to review the output of AI applications at the system level rather than prompt by prompt. When AI systems are thoughtfully designed, we can combine the best of human and machine intelligence for this incredible new era."

Salesforce conducted a double-anonymous survey in collaboration with YouGov from March 20 to April 3, 2024. Almost 6,000 full-time employees participated in the survey, representing companies of various sizes and industries in nine countries - including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany, India, Singapore and Switzerland (265 people). The survey was conducted online.