When a Swiss business owner cannot fill a role, the question of whether software could do part of the job comes up quickly. It is a reasonable question. The honest answer from the current evidence is: partly, for some roles, and mostly by removing tasks rather than replacing people.
The shortage has eased, but not gone away
The latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that in the second quarter of 2026, 33.9% of enterprises (weighted by number of employees) reported difficulty recruiting skilled workers, a slight increase on the previous quarter. Vacancies stood at 98,700, and in industry and construction they were up more than a fifth on a year earlier. At the end of 2025, the same survey put the share at 36.2%.
So the pressure is a little lower than in the peak years, but roughly one in three employers is still finding it hard to hire the people they need. For a small firm, one unfilled position can mean turning away work.
Where AI helps, and where it does not
In October 2026, Deloitte Switzerland published a study of 279 occupations, reported by Swissinfo. Its conclusion was clear: AI is changing the Swiss labour market, but it is unlikely to solve a shortage driven by demographics.
The study draws a useful line. AI can take on work in documentation, planning, administration and information retrieval. It is unlikely, for the foreseeable future, to care for the sick or elderly, teach children or carry out manual work. The authors expect shortages to persist, and possibly worsen, in people-facing, service and hands-on professions such as care, hospitality, logistics and the skilled trades. Their recommendation was to strengthen vocational training and make career changes into those fields easier.
The OECD's survey of more than 5,000 SMEs across seven countries adds a more encouraging data point. Among SMEs that use generative AI and had experienced a skill gap, 39% said the technology had helped compensate for it. A third said it had reduced staff workload, and 14% said it had reduced their reliance on outside contractors. Yet twice as many SMEs said generative AI raised their need for highly skilled workers (20%) as said it lowered it (9%).
Swiss survey data point the same way. In the Sotomo survey for AXA reported by Swissinfo, 57% of SMEs using AI reported time savings, but only 2% said those savings meant they could currently do without staff. About a third said AI was changing the skills they look for in employees.
What this means for a small firm
Taken together, the evidence suggests a practical rule. AI will not hire your missing electrician, nurse or chef. It can, however, give back some of the hours that your existing skilled people spend on work that is not their skill.
In most SMEs, the people who are hardest to replace also carry a surprising amount of administration: writing up reports, preparing quotes, answering routine questions, chasing documents, scheduling. Every hour removed from that pile is an hour returned to the work you actually hired them for. That does not close a vacancy, but it can reduce how much the vacancy hurts.
It also changes what you should look for when you do hire. If the OECD and Sotomo findings hold, the people who get the most from these tools are those who can judge the output, which places more weight on experience and on willingness to keep learning.
A short exercise for owners
Take the one role you find hardest to fill, and work through these steps with the people who currently cover it:
- List the weekly tasks. Write down everything the role involves, not just the job description.
- Mark each task. Is it core skilled work, coordination, or paperwork?
- Estimate hours. Roughly how much of a typical week goes on the coordination and paperwork columns?
- Check for repetition. Which of those tasks follow the same shape every time? Those are the candidates for automation.
- Decide what stays human. Anything involving judgement about safety, care, quality or a client relationship stays with a person, with AI at most preparing a draft.
- Pilot on one task. Automate one repetitive task for four to six weeks and measure the hours returned.
If the answer to step three is very little, AI is unlikely to help much with that role, and the effort is better spent on recruiting, training or apprenticeships. If it is several hours a week, there is a case worth testing.
The bottom line
The skills shortage in Switzerland is mainly a demographic problem, and demographic problems are not solved by software. What AI can do is protect the time of the skilled people you already have. Treat it as a way to reduce the administrative load on hard-to-replace roles, not as a substitute for hiring, and the expectations will match what the evidence supports.
Not sure where your team's hours are going? The free AI Readiness Audit maps recurring work and shows which tasks could be taken off your skilled staff.
Sources
- Federal Statistical Office, "Increase in employment in 2nd quarter 2026", 27 August 2026. link
- Federal Statistical Office, "Slight increase in employment in 4th quarter 2025", 26 February 2026. link
- Swissinfo, "Study finds AI won't solve skills shortage in Switzerland", 22 October 2026. link
- OECD, "Generative AI and the SME Workforce", 5 November 2025. link
- Swissinfo, "Swiss SMEs ramp up adoption of AI in workplaces", 8 October 2025. link