Swiss SMEs do not expect AI-related job cuts
Published: Thursday, Sep 26th 2024, 08:20
Updated At: Friday, Sep 27th 2024, 01:59
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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland are not afraid of artificial intelligence. According to a survey conducted by Axa, only a small proportion of managers of companies with 5 to 250 employees expect to be able to do without staff despite the increasing use of AI applications.
In the information and communication sector, where the study suggests AI is likely to provide the greatest time savings, only 7% of SMEs expect job savings. "Even though AI applications are primarily used in communication today, AI tasks such as translations or correspondence management appear to be used more as a support than a replacement," Kathrin Braunwarth, Head of Data, Technology & Innovation at Axa Switzerland, was quoted as saying in the press release published on Thursday.
Employees would hand over "tedious and sometimes tedious tasks" to AI applications. This simplifies work and saves time, but not jobs.
In other sectors, the fear of job cuts is greater. For example, 22% of companies in manufacturing, 18% in trade and 14% in industry expect job cuts. "In these sectors, there is a relatively large amount of standardizable work, such as production, sorting or logistics tasks, which explains the high potential for job cuts," Axa explains.
Larger companies tend to be more positive
However, the differences in the assessment of AI applications in relation to company development depend not only on the sector, but also in particular on the size of the SME. According to the press release, over half of the companies surveyed with more than 50 employees see artificial intelligence as a positive development.
Among medium-sized companies with up to 49 employees, this figure drops to 41%. Among SMEs with five to nine employees, only 27% of respondents still think that AI is useful to them. A quarter of respondents from small companies even consider AI to be a threat. This fear is far less prevalent among medium-sized (15%) and large companies (6%).
"A sensible implementation of AI often requires resources, such as technology and employees who know how to use it. Larger SMEs are more likely to have these resources at their disposal than smaller SMEs," says Braunwarth, categorizing the results.
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