Only a fifth of all SMEs perceive AI as a threat

Ever since the launch of the chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022, the whole world has been talking about artificial intelligence and its impact. As the results of this year's Axa SME labor market study show, Swiss SMEs are already actively engaging with the topic. More than half (55 %) of the companies surveyed are integrating artificial intelligence into their business processes. A third of SMEs are still at the trial stage and are using AI either in certain projects or on their employees' own initiative. By contrast, around a fifth (22 %) of SMEs are already consciously integrating artificial intelligence into their business processes. Six percent do this in all areas of the company and 16 percent in certain projects. 45 percent of the companies surveyed do not yet use AI tools for business processes.

This shows that the majority of SMEs surveyed use artificial intelligence primarily for communication and writing tasks. 48 percent use the software for translations, while 40 percent use AI for correspondence tasks, for example to speed up or facilitate the writing of emails and letters. "AI applications can bring clear added value in this area and can be integrated into existing work processes relatively easily. Especially in a multilingual country like Switzerland with a highly interconnected international economy, texts, emails and presentations constantly need to be translated into different languages, and artificial intelligence provides efficient assistance in this regard," says Kathrin Braunwarth, Head of Data, Technology & Innovation at Axa Switzerland.

Personal interaction remains important in customer contact

A good third (36 %) use AI to create advertising copy. SMEs are even more reluctant to use AI for image generation (21 %). Around a quarter of AI-using SMEs use artificial intelligence to optimize work steps and data analysis. "In these areas, the integration of AI is somewhat more time-consuming and requires more experience than in the area of communication," explains Michel Hermann, Managing Director of the Sotomo research institute, which conducted the survey on behalf of Axa. At around 15 percent, AI is currently used least frequently in personalized advertising and customer care. "Personal interaction remains important in customer contact. This may be supported by AI, such as in correspondence tasks, but not completely replaced by it," says Michael Hermann.

A third of SMEs see AI as an opportunity

Although artificial intelligence is currently being tested rather than fully integrated in most companies, the fundamental attitude of companies towards AI is decisive for its future use. The results of the Axa study show that 45% of companies are indifferent to artificial intelligence. In other words, they perceive it neither as a threat nor as an opportunity for their company. Around a third of SMEs see AI applications as an opportunity for the company and are positive about them. Significantly fewer, around 20 percent, perceive artificial intelligence (rather) as a threat to their business.

There are clear differences in terms of company size: over half (52 %) 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, the figure is still 41%, and only 27% among the SMEs surveyed with five to nine employees.

Among small companies, a quarter of respondents even classify AI as a threat to their own business activities, compared to only 15 percent of medium-sized SMEs and just under one in six large SMEs. "A sensible implementation of AI often requires resources, such as technology and employees who know how to deal with it. Larger SMEs are more likely to have these resources at their disposal than smaller SMEs," says Kathrin Braunwarth from Axa, categorizing the results.

Expected effects on workload vary

One of the most feared effects of artificial intelligence is job losses. It is based on the assumption that certain tasks that are currently carried out by humans could be automated thanks to AI. This applies in particular to routine tasks that have a high degree of standardization. As the Axa SME labor market study shows, fears of job losses due to AI are currently exaggerated. Over half (53 %) of the companies surveyed state that they have not yet felt any effects on their workload. While around a quarter (27 %) of those surveyed believe that AI will certainly save time, a fifth think that the implementation of AI is currently creating more workload than it is saving.

When it comes to the outlook for the next two years, more SMEs believe that artificial intelligence AI will reduce the workload (43 %) compared to those who believe it will increase it (20 %). However, there are also differences here, particularly by business sector. Not surprisingly, the communications sector in particular (67 %) expects significant time savings in the future. "As artificial intelligence is currently mainly used for translations and correspondence work, it makes sense that companies in the communications and media sector can benefit the most from AI. But IT companies, which also belong to this sector, are also predestined to benefit from AI tools in the area of data analysis and programming," says Michael Hermann from Sotomo. Around half of companies in industry (59 %), manufacturing (53 %) and retail (47 %) also expect to save time thanks to AI applications. Across all sectors, the proportion that will benefit from AI applications in terms of time in the near future predominates.

No staff reductions foreseeable due to AI

Despite the foreseeable time savings, only a clear minority of SMEs believe that they will lose staff as a result of AI. The greatest expected job losses are in manufacturing (22 %), trade (18 %) and industry (14 %). These sectors involve a relatively large amount of standardizable work, such as production, sorting or logistics tasks, which explains the high potential for job cuts. Interestingly, in the information and communication sector, where the greatest time savings are currently expected, only seven percent of SMEs anticipate job savings.

"Even if AI applications are mainly used in communication today, AI tasks such as translations or correspondence management seem to be used more as a support than a replacement. The information sector benefits greatly from time savings, as employees can hand over tedious and sometimes tedious tasks to AI applications. We currently see that AI simplifies current work and does not save jobs," says DTI Director Kathrin Braunwarth. The current assessment of the SMEs surveyed therefore indicates that the increased benefits of AI do not go hand in hand with increased job cuts.

The question arises as to whether AI tools will only simplify certain work steps or whether they will change the way we work together and therefore also the demands placed on skilled workers. As the SME labor market study shows, SMEs are still skeptical in this regard. More than half of SMEs believe that AI applications will not change the requirements profile for employees, while only 21% of the companies surveyed are of the opinion that artificial intelligence will have an impact on the requirements profile. However, this is likely to change with the greater implementation of AI. "Among SMEs that already use AI, 29% have observed a change in requirements. With the implementation of AI in more and more companies, it can therefore be expected that the requirements profiles for employees will also change to a greater extent," believes Sotomo Institute Director Michael Hermann.

Source: www.axa.ch