Swiss companies are lagging behind in transformation and AI implementation
More than 60 percent of Swiss companies feel that their own transformation is proceeding too slowly. A new study by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts shows that while generative AI is widely used, only a few companies are able to derive measurable economic value from it. The gap between successful and less successful companies continues to widen.
Business transformation remains a highly relevant topic for Swiss companies. Technological change, changing customer needs, economic pressure, geopolitical tensions and new regulatory requirements often have a simultaneous impact on companies. In this environment, selective adaptation is becoming less and less sufficient. The need for transformation is widely recognized in companies, but many fall short in terms of practical implementation, as the new Business Transformation Survey 2.0 from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts shows. Almost 400 decision-makers were surveyed for this purpose.
Implementation remains the biggest challenge
For the majority of respondents, the transformation is also not progressing fast enough. «Companies want change, but many are not implementing it with the necessary speed and consistency,» says study author Jan Schlüchter. Although transformation initiatives are launched, there is often a lack of clear responsibilities, sufficient resources and consistent progress measurement and control. Many companies get stuck in individual initiatives or pilot projects without scaling them systematically. Compared to the first survey in 2022, the gap between companies has also widened further. «The differences are particularly evident in terms of leadership, communicative support, learning ability and the sustainable anchoring of changes,» says Schlüchter.
Generative AI: Employees are further ahead than their organization
Due to delivery bottlenecks, efficiency and performance pressure, generative AI is clearly gaining in importance as an additional impetus for transformation. It has already become part of everyday working life in many companies. At the same time, the study shows that many companies are not yet able to achieve measurable economic added value from it. «Many employees are more advanced in dealing with generative AI than their organization. The ability of companies to implement generative AI in concrete applications, processes and value creation is lagging behind,» says Schlüchter. According to the respondents, companies can be categorized as «beginners» or «explorers» in terms of their AI maturity - only a few are «AI champions» so far. The more advanced a company is in terms of generative AI, the higher the perceived goal achievement of the transformation.
AI in procurement: strategically planned, operationally only implemented to a limited extent
The gap is particularly clear in purchasing. A supplementary survey of 74 procurement experts - mainly from the manufacturing and retail sectors - shows that the motivation to use AI in procurement is high: The motivation to use AI in procurement is high. AI is seen as an opportunity to further develop the role of procurement into a strategic value driver by making potential and alternatives in the procurement market visible, identifying risks earlier and creating more transparency along the supply chain. However, a lack of expertise, limited resources and unclear responsibilities make consistent integration into existing processes difficult. «The bottleneck is therefore not in the will, but in the organizational capability and scaling,» says Jan Schlüchter.
It's not the technology, but the leadership that counts
The study also clearly shows that it is not the companies with the greatest awareness of the problem that transform successfully, but those that manage, implement and anchor change more consistently. «Transformation is not a collection of individual projects, but a management task that must be consistently managed and anchored in the organization,» says Schlüchter. This leads to a clear conclusion for managers: it is not the availability of new technologies that determines success, but the ability to translate them into sustainable value creation. The study identifies ten specific recommendations for action to help companies manage their transformation and AI initiatives more effectively. The strongest levers lie in visible and decisive leadership, clear shared orientation, open communication about progress, regular measurement and a culture that allows learning and failure as part of development.
HSLU study «Business Transformation Survey 2.0»
For the second edition of the Business Transformation Survey, almost 400 decision-makers from Swiss companies in various sectors and of various sizes were surveyed between October 2025 and March 2026 using an online questionnaire. The study focuses on the Business Transformation Maturity Model with the dimensions of readiness, capacity and capabilities - i.e. prerequisites, ability to implement and skills. The survey was supplemented by an additional module on the role of generative AI as a driver of transformation and a functional in-depth look at AI in procurement. The study was conducted by the Institute of Business and Regional Economics (IBR) at the Lucerne School of Business as part of an Innocheck project together with Efexcon and in collaboration with Procure.ch.
