AI conquers everyday life in Switzerland: 60 percent use ChatGPT and co.
For the first time, a majority of the Swiss population is using AI tools in their daily lives. The latest IGEM Digimonitor study shows that 60 percent use ChatGPT and other AI applications, while a significant shift is taking place in the media landscape—Instagram is growing, as is news consumption via social media.
The IGEM Digimonitor 2025 provides new figures on Swiss media usage - and m&k has exclusively interviewed five experts via video interview. When starting the interview, please note that you can go directly to the respective experts via the timeline. Particularly striking: 60% of the population use AI tools todayin the previous year it was only 40%. Older people tend to use AI for private purposes, while younger people use it more for education and work. X continues to lose ground and has lost a third of its reach in German-speaking Switzerland, while Instagram grows to 4 million users and consolidates its leading position. In video streaming, the Smartphone in front of the TV setYouTube remains the most important platform on cell phones and computers, while traditional television dominates on the big screen. Reaching digital news 97% of the population - For younger people, social media and YouTube are the main daily sources of information.
Artificial intelligence has developed from a niche topic to a mass phenomenon in Switzerland within a short space of time. As the latest IGEM Digimonitor study shows, 60% of the Swiss population are using AI tools for the first time - that equates to around 3.8 million people. Compared to the previous year, this represents a significant increase of 20 percentage points.
The use of AI applications differs significantly by age group: Among 15 to 34-year-olds, 79 percent already use AI tools, compared to just 40 percent of over 55-year-olds. In a professional context, the picture is similar - 69% of the younger generation use AI at work or in training, while only one in four people over the age of 55 do so.
Parallel to the development of AI, the social media landscape is also changing: Instagram is expanding its leading position and now reaches 4 million users (63%). By contrast, X (formerly Twitter) has suffered significant losses - its reach in German-speaking Switzerland has plummeted by a third. Its successor Threads has only been able to benefit from this to a limited extent so far.
A differentiated picture emerges for traditional media: at 97%, digital news reaches practically the entire population, whereby private news platforms such as 20min.ch or watson.ch are more popular than public service offerings (28%) with 46% daily use. Social media and YouTube dominate as news sources, particularly among the younger generation - 41% obtain their daily news via these channels.
There are also signs of change in the area of video streaming: for the first time, videos are being streamed more frequently on smartphones than on TV sets. YouTube remains the most used platform with 4.8 million users (76%), followed by Netflix (54%) and SRG offerings.
The gaming industry is also growing: 3.6 million Swiss people (57%) play games at least occasionally - an increase of a quarter of a million compared to the previous year. When it comes to daily gaming, the differences between genders and age groups are surprisingly small.
The Digimonitor study has been surveying the use of electronic media and devices in Switzerland every year since 2014. From 2024, the data is representative of the internet-using Swiss population aged 15 to 75 (6.3 million people). The online survey took place from March to April 2025.
