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According to a survey conducted by Axa, only a small proportion of bosses of companies with 5 to 250 employees expect to be able to do without staff despite the increasing use of AI applications.

In the information and communication sector, where AI is likely to provide the greatest time savings according to the study, only 7% of SMEs anticipate job savings.

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“Even though AI applications are primarily used in communication today, AI tasks such as translations or correspondence appear to be used more as a support than a replacement”, Kathrin Braunwarth, Head of Data, Technology & Innovation at Axa Switzerland, was quoted as saying in the press release published on Thursday.

Employees would hand over “tedious and somewhat tedious tasks” to AI applications. This would simplify work and save time, but not necessarily threaten jobs.

In other sectors, the fear of job losses is greater. For example, 22% of companies in the manufacturing sector, 18% in trade and 14% in industry expect job cuts. “In these sectors, there is a relatively large amount of standardisable work, such as production, sorting or logistics tasks, which explains the high potential for job cuts,” Axa explains.

Larger companies more positive

When assessing AI applications in terms of business development, however, the differences depend not only on the industry, but in particular on the size of the SMEs. According to the press release, over half 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, this proportion drops to 41%. Among SMEs with five to nine employees, only 27% of respondents still think that AI is useful to them. A quarter of respondents from small companies even consider AI to be a threat. This fear is far less prevalent among medium-sized (15%) and large companies (6%).

“A meaningful 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 Braunwarth.