Artificial intelligence could not only threaten jobs in Switzerland, but also create indirect winners. Hotels and yoga studios, for example, could benefit if consumers have more disposable income as a result of productivity gains.
“AI has the potential to significantly increase worker productivity,” says KOF economist Michael Siegenthaler in an interview with the AWP news agency. This would allow companies to save costs and reinvest those savings in lower prices or new investments. In addition, more productive workers could receive higher wages.
“It’s possible that there are many indirect beneficiaries of AI,” says Siegenthaler. For example, yoga studios or hotels could benefit because people would have more money to spend. However, such effects are harder to attribute to the technology. “The losers of a technology are always easier to spot than the winners.”
According to Siegenthaler, IT and language-related professions—including those in marketing, journalism, and human resources—are particularly vulnerable to generative language models such as ChatGPT. Less affected are manual jobs, such as those in construction or cleaning, as well as service jobs involving direct contact with people, such as in education, healthcare, or the restaurant industry.
The KOF economist estimates that between 5,000 and 20,000 people in Switzerland may have lost their jobs due to AI. Given that there are just over five million people in the workforce, this is not a “huge number.”
The problem, however, is that those affected are often highly qualified and therefore incur above-average costs for unemployment insurance. In addition, prolonged unemployment can have psychological and physical consequences.
