Swiss SME AI adoption jumped from 22% to 34% in a year
The share of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises that deliberately integrate AI into their work processes rose from 22% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, a 12-point jump in a single year. Over the same period, the share that had never used AI fell from 45% to 29%.
For SMEs, the pace matters more than the level: a 12-point jump in a single year suggests AI moved from early adopters toward mainstream tooling across much of the Swiss SME landscape. The same study found 37% of SMEs are now testing AI (up from 33%), so the share actively using it may keep climbing, though whether this pace holds is the open question worth tracking.
How we measured this
All figures come from AXA's "KMU-Arbeitsmarktstudie 2025" (4th edition), conducted by the research institute Sotomo. Fieldwork ran 3–10 March 2025 with 300 SMEs from German- and French-speaking Switzerland; the AI chapter was published 8 October 2025. The figures are independently reported by the Swiss Confederation's SME portal.
| Figure | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| SMEs deliberately integrating AI | 22% | 34% |
| SMEs that have never used AI | 45% | 29% |
| SMEs testing AI | 33% | 37% |
Limitations. This is a commissioned survey (by an insurer), not official statistics; the sample is n = 300 and covers only German- and French-speaking Switzerland (no Italian-speaking cantons); and "deliberate integration of AI" is self-reported against the survey's own definition. Treat it as directionally credible rather than a national-statistics ground truth.
- AXA: KMU-Arbeitsmarktstudie 2025 (AI chapter), press release (survey by Sotomo, n=300, fieldwork 3–10 March 2025).
- Sotomo: AXA KMU-Arbeitsmarktstudie 2025 (project page).
- Swiss Confederation SME portal: AI gains ground among Swiss SMEs (corroboration).