You would have to be blind not to recognize the GenAI effect. To the great dismay of artificial intelligence specialists before the LLM, it took this scholarly chatbot starting to converse with everyone for AI to really take off. Since November 2022, the conscious use of AI has increased considerably. Surveys carried out in Switzerland indicate that a majority of professionals today use these tools for their work, even if the results are disparate (55% of professionals according to the IMD, 82% of knowledge workers according to Microsoft)1,2.
Experimentation and anticipation
Note, however, that the adoption figures are much lower if we ask business leaders. Thus, in a PWC survey, only 16% of Swiss CEOs indicate having introduced generative AI into their organization.3. The gap can be explained by the fact that employees use GenAI tools unofficially (Shadow AI) or that they are not really deployed company-wide. In many organizations, generative AI is currently used experimentally, and limited to certain roles and functions. Thus, only 6% of Swiss banks say they use AI operationally, but 32% have first application cases or are carrying out pilot projects, according to the latest EY barometer4.
Currently, Swiss companies are experimenting more than they are adopting, but they anticipate future upheavals. 53% of Swiss CEOs believe that generative AI will significantly change the way their company creates, generates and captures value over the next three years3. Overall, 59% of CEOs surveyed by Gartner5 believe that AI will have a significant impact on their industry in the same three-year horizon, while only 21% thought the same in 2023.
The targeted functions change…
Another notable GenAI effect is the areas and functions of the business affected. While previous AI projects mainly concerned the automation of internal processes and decision support, companies are primarily interested in generative AI for two external areas – marketing and customer service – and of course assisted programming on the IT side. Thus, according to a recent survey by MSM Research6content generation and customer interactions (sales, marketing, chatbot) are the two most popular applications of AI in Swiss companies.
Interest in these popular uses can even eclipse more traditional, yet proven, AI applications. Thus, according to an EPFZ survey of Swissmem members, more Swiss manufacturers anticipate widespread use of AI in marketing and customer service than in production and the supply chain. They are also more likely to consider a large-scale deployment of LLMs than of computer vision – a key technology for industry 4.0. 7.
…the objective remains the same
GenAI therefore shakes up priorities and projects. Where classical and generative AI come together, however, is in the expected benefits. Almost all surveys indicate that Swiss companies mainly intend to gain productivity thanks to AI and GenAI is no exception. The majority of Swiss CEOs believe that these new tools will increase their efficiency and that of their employees. And 29% expect better profitability from their business, compared to 16% anticipating an increase in income3.
If the objective is clear, the way to achieve it is much less clear. The majority of Swiss professionals surveyed by Microsoft2 are concerned about quantifying productivity gains and 60% of executives fear that their management does not have a plan and vision for deploying AI. Same at the international level: 49% of managers surveyed by Gartner believe that the difficulty of estimating and demonstrating the value of AI is one of the main obstacles to their implementation projects8. “GenAI acts as a catalyst for the expansion of AI in the enterprise,” comments Leinar Ramos, director at Gartner. This creates a window of opportunity for AI leaders, but also a test of whether they will be able to capitalize on this moment and deliver value at scale.”
Teams to be reconfigured…
Doubts about the ability of organizations to convert the trial are compounded by fears about the impact of AI on work. In a recent EY survey, three quarters of respondents in Switzerland believe that AI will take over some of their tasks9. Possible consequence, jobs will be deleted. Bosses don’t think so or at least don’t say it: only 1% of CEOs surveyed by PWC believe that the deployment of AI will weigh on the workforce3. Swiss employees surveyed by the IMD, on the other hand, are very divided: a third think that the AI wave will create jobs, a third that it will eliminate them.1.
Disappearance of jobs or creation of jobs, surveys agree on the fact that the workforce will be transformed. “According to our experts, there is no way to escape the ‘significant changes’ that will be triggered in the job market by the advent of GenAI technologies. The upcoming reconfiguration of our work environment will require expert advice and support to be successful,” writes the IMD in its report1.
Two aspects of this reconfiguration of teams are addressed in the studies. Firstly, an increasing weight of IT in the workforce. The majority of Swiss professionals believe that specialists in AI and machine learning, as well as data engineers and data analysts, will play an increased role in their organization and more generally in Switzerland over the next three years.1. A problem given the shortage of talent in these fields. 68% of Swiss manufacturers surveyed by the ETHZ indicate that they have limited access to the specialists they need for their AI initiatives7. And 55% of Swiss executives surveyed by Microsoft are worried about not finding talent for open positions this year2.
…skills to develop
Second staff reconfiguration addressed in the surveys, skills development and team retraining. And the results are mixed to say the least. On the one hand, 72% of managers surveyed by EY say they have confidence in the existing skills of their teams to work effectively with AI and respond to future transformations7.
On the other hand, 63% of Swiss CEOs surveyed by PWC believe that the majority of staff will need to acquire new skills within three years due to generative AI3and 91% of managers surveyed by Accenture recognize the need to review their re-skilling strategies in response to generative AI10.
Swiss employees are also in demand: 93% of them want to acquire new skills in generative AI, according to the Accenture survey10. But only 36% say their employer does enough when it comes to training, according to EY survey9. Note that while the surveys analyzed focus on the need for re-skilling and the means to achieve it, none address the concrete skills that the teams will have to develop.
The risks and challenges that monopolize attention
Beyond the question of talents and skills, data represents the main challenge emerging from the surveys. In this respect, the ETH study is eloquent: for 48% of the Swiss manufacturers surveyed, AI projects are motivated by the desire to exploit available data. And at the same time, a large third of them believe that data quality and governance are currently insufficient for AI projects.7. Across sectors, only 7% of Swiss companies surveyed by Accenture, half the global average, are “extremely confident” that they have the right data strategy and core digital capabilities to leverage effectively leveraged generative AI10 .
When it comes to the risks of generative AI, two themes stand out in the survey results. First and foremost, security and data protection. The subject is at the top of the identified risks, both among professionals surveyed by the IMD1 (54%) than among Swiss CEOs surveyed by PWC3 (70%). Second area of concern, the imprecision of the results and content produced by generative AI. 50% of employees surveyed by Accenture10 are worried about it and 54% of Swiss CEOs surveyed by PWC3.
If these risks stand out, it is also because they appear in the choices offered to respondents. Proposing more answers, certain studies highlight other areas of concern among Swiss professionals, such as an increase in stress and professional burnout (54%, Accenture10), loss of control and excessive dependence (51%, IMD1) and algorithmic manipulation (41%).
Faced with these risks, employees’ feelings are ambivalent. In the IMD investigation184% believe that AI has the potential to bring positive change and 78% say they are optimistic. At the same time, 41% find that there are too many associated risks and 36% worry that AI will bring more harm than good.
References
- “Charting the Future: Switzerland’s Path to Generative AI Leadership in 2024 and Beyond”, IMD, 2024
- Work Trend Index 2024 (Suisse), Microsoft, 2024
- Annual Global CEO Survey, Swiss edition, PWC, 2024
- Banking Barometer 2024, EY Switzerland, 2024
- “How Your CEO Is Thinking About AI”, Gartner, 2024
- “Artificial intelligence in Switzerland”, MSM Research AG, 2024
- The state of AI in the Swiss tech industry, ETH Zurich in cooperation with Swissmem and Next Industries, 2024
- “Gartner Survey Finds Generative AI Is Now the Most Frequently Deployed AI Solution in Organizations”, Gartner 2024
- EY European AI Barometer, EY 2024
- “Playing the Long Game: Can Switzerland lead the way in generative AI?” et Accenture Pulse of Change, Accenture, 2023-2024
