From AI pilot to production: who owns it?

A 2026 survey of 604 Swiss decision-makers found that 89% use AI in their daily work, yet 31% are still at pilot stage and only 9% say AI is integral to their strategy.

The barriers named are not about models. They are data quality and silos, security and privacy, and a shortage of qualified people. Over half of respondents call compliance with Swiss or EU data protection and in-region processing business-critical.

A pilot succeeds with a few enthusiasts and a clean dataset. Production needs an owner, a decision about which data may be used, and a way to show a risk committee what the system does. These are governance questions, and they are usually answered late.

Naming an owner before the pilot ends is the cheapest step an organisation can take.

Source : EY Swiss AI survey 2026, as reported by markt-kom