SWISS SMES · AI ADOPTION · USE CASES
Forget moonshots. Swiss SMEs are using AI for the most ordinary office work imaginable - and that is exactly why it is working.
Mostly everyday office work, not moonshots. In the AXA 2025 labour-market study, the top AI uses among Swiss SMEs were translation (52%) and correspondence (47%), followed by automating work processes (34%), data analysis (32%), targeted advertising (24%) and customer relationship management (20%).
The use-case ranking
From the AXA/Sotomo study of SMEs in German- and French-speaking Switzerland:
Translation: 52%
Correspondence (drafting and answering emails and letters): 47%
Automating work processes: 34% (up from 23% in 2024)
Data analysis: 32% (up from 22%)
Targeted advertising: 24%
Customer relationship management: 20%
The pattern behind the numbers
The winning uses share three traits: they are text-heavy, they sit inside existing routines, and a human still checks the output. Translation and correspondence need no integration project - they pay back on day one. The fastest-growing uses (automation and data analysis, both up ~10 points in a year) are where AI moves from assistant to infrastructure.
What is notably not on the list
Novelty use cases - AI agents running processes end to end, AI negotiating with customers, AI writing production code unsupervised - barely register in the SME data. The Swiss mid-market is buying time savings, not science projects.
The takeaway: the boring uses win. Translation and correspondence pay back on day one; automation is where the real build-out is heading.
What this means if you are starting
Copy the ranking. Start with translation and correspondence (near-zero risk, immediate payoff), then pick one process to automate properly and one data-analysis question worth answering. That sequence matches what is working across hundreds of Swiss SMEs - and it is cheap to reverse if a step disappoints.
Sources
SECO, "AI gains ground among Swiss SMEs" (5 November 2025, on the AXA study)
AXA / Sotomo, SME labour-market study 2026 (German, PDF)
Last updated: 20 October 2026.
TL;DR: Swiss SMEs use AI mostly for translation (52%) and correspondence (47%), then process automation (34%) and data analysis (32%) - the two fastest-growing uses. Flashy agentic use cases barely register. If you are starting, copy the ranking: begin with text work, then automate one process properly.
Reading time: ~3 min
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