Driver 6: artificial intelligence and talent

Artificial intelligence in the financial industry

Artificial intelligence will change the production function of the financial centre more deeply than any technology since the computer. FINMA’s survey of about four hundred institutions, conducted between November 2024 and January 2025, found that around half of them used AI or had initial applications in development. A further quarter intended to adopt it within three years. The average institution had about five applications in use and nine in development. Ninety-one per cent of the users employed generative AI, most of them relying on external service providers.¹ FINMA applies the principle of the same risks and the same rules and expects institutions to consult it before using AI in critical processes, as Chapter J.III explained.

The regulatory framework is still being formed. On 12 February 2025 the Federal Council decided to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Artificial Intelligence and to implement it through targeted amendments in individual sectors, supplemented by general provisions on data protection. It instructed the departments to prepare a consultation draft and a plan for non-binding measures by the end of 2026.² The Swiss approach differs from the comprehensive regulation of the EU AI Act, although Swiss institutions serving European clients will have to comply with the European rules in any case.

The effects of AI on the financial centre are uncertain in their size and direction. AI can reduce the costs of compliance, client onboarding, research and portfolio construction, which would strengthen high-cost locations such as Zurich because labour costs weigh less in the calculation. The same technology can make advisory and middle-office functions easier to relocate or to automate, which would reduce employment. The competitive advantage will lie with centres that combine financial expertise, research and legal certainty in the use of data. Zurich’s research base, from ETH Zurich and its AI Center to the Swiss AI Initiative and the international laboratories that have settled in the city, is a strength that few competitors can match.

Talent and housing

The talent base is the other side of this driver. Chapter D.III has traced the human capital of the financial centre back to the Polytechnikum of 1855, and Chapter J.III has described the international workforce of the present. The bottleneck is increasingly physical. On 1 June 2026 only 252 apartments stood empty in the city of Zurich, or 0.11 per cent of the housing stock. Vacant apartments were offered at about CHF 40 per square metre, compared with CHF 31 before 2024.³ The free movement of persons with the EU, secured for the time being by the rejection of the population cap in June 2026, allows the recruitment of European staff. Workers from third countries, including many AI specialists, remain subject to annual quotas. The critical uncertainty for 2035 is whether Zurich can house and admit the people it needs, since the quality of the talent base depends as much on housing and immigration policy as on universities and salaries.

Notes

1. FINMA, “FINMA survey: artificial intelligence gaining traction at Swiss financial institutions”, 24 April 2025, https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2025/04/20250424-mm-umfrage-ki/. ↩
2. law.ch, “KI-Regulierung: Bundesrat will Konvention des Europarats ratifizieren”, February 2025, https://law.ch/lawnews/2025/02/ki-regulierung-bundesrat-will-konvention-des-europarats-ratifizieren/. ↩
3. Südostschweiz (Keystone-SDA), “Zürich und Winterthur verzeichnen kaum mehr Leerwohnungen”, 2026, https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/schweiz-und-welt/zuerich-und-winterthur-verzeichnen-kaum-mehr-leerwohnungen-2125526. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.