The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Education Industry in Switzerland in 2025

Switzerland's education sector in 2025 is shifting fast from experimentation to practical use: federal labs and universities are building “Swiss” language models and regulators are moving to balance innovation with trust, while schools and providers must fix data plumbing before AI can reliably personalise learning (personalised paths can lift performance by up to 30%).

Corporations and education institutions alike face a data- and integration-first challenge - only a minority have consistent, high-quality data - so pilots must tie to clear KPIs and privacy rules.

For educators and EdTech teams wanting workplace-ready skills, practical courses like Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus teach prompt-writing, tool selection and deployment steps that map directly to Swiss priorities; for a compact national perspective on the policy and innovation scene see the overview of Swiss AI developments in 2025 (SwissInfo).

Indicator	Value	Source
Swiss companies with AI in long‑term strategy	65%	CorpIn (AI trends 2025)
Institutions using AI technologies (global, 2023)	63%	EIMT Top 10 AI Trends
Potential student performance uplift from personalised learning	Up to 30%	EIMT Top 10 AI Trends

“AI's transforming the Swiss labour market not through sudden disruption, but through steady shifts in skills, qualifications, and sector dynamics. Our data shows that organisations are learning to use AI to enhance talent rather than replace it – and that presents a major opportunity for forward-thinking leaders.” - Adrian Jones, PwC Switzerland

Switzerland's regulatory landscape for AI in education is deliberately pragmatic: rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all “Swiss AI Act,” the Federal Council decided in February 2025 to ratify the Council of Europe's AI Convention and to pursue a technology‑neutral, sector‑specific route that balances innovation with rights protection - a strategy that means schools and EdTechs should prepare for targeted legal tweaks (transparency, data protection and non‑discrimination) while relying on existing Swiss law and guidance for the near term.

That approach (and the plan to have a draft bill and non‑binding measures by the end of 2026) makes clear why education leaders must get the basics right now: solid data plumbing, privacy impact assessments and clear governance will determine whether a classroom's anonymised learning logs can safely power personalised pathways or become a compliance headache.

Practical guidance is already available from federal bodies and supervisors (including FDPIC and FINMA) and the legal scene is tracked in detail by firms such as White & Case; for the Federal Council's policy decision see the Swiss Bankers Association summary of that February 2025 announcement.

"A machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that may influence physical or virtual environments."

Digital platforms and content governance are fast becoming classroom issues in Switzerland: federal debates over a dedicated platform law - meant to tackle disinformation, deepfakes and opaque recommendation systems - have been prominent, yet the Federal Council repeatedly postponed a final decision on online platform scrutiny in April 2025, leaving schools and EdTechs to rely on existing legal guardrails and national strategy work while regulators catch up; for a concise national view see the Swiss AI developments in 2025 (SwissInfo).

Measure	Start / Status	Source
Online platform law (large platforms)	Postponed (Federal Council, Apr 2025)	Keystone‑SDA / SwissInfo
Monitoring AI guidelines	Started 2024	Digital Switzerland Action Plan
Data‑use policy for Swiss education sector	Start: 2025	Digital Switzerland Action Plan

“We need to turn the tables and establish rules for these platforms to facilitate constructive public debate that benefits society and democracy.” - Angela Müller & Estelle Pannatier, AlgorithmWatch CH

Swiss schools and vocational programmes now face a concrete teaching and infrastructure task because autonomous mobility is no longer theoretical: the Federal Ordinance on Automated Driving (OAD), in force since 1 March 2025, legalises highway pilots (SAE Level 3), automated parking and driverless vehicles on canton‑approved routes monitored from control centres, which means classrooms should expand beyond theory to include remote‑operation protocols, sensor and 5G system basics, data‑logging practices and the regulatory literacy to navigate cantonal approvals and liability rules; the Bern University of Applied Sciences' work - from the student‑built “sh@ttle” Renault Twizy to the 5G test site in Vauffelin and the minimum system requirements defined with Fribourg - shows how hands‑on labs and testbeds can map directly to industry needs, while legal briefings such as Pestalozzi's overview of the OAD underscore that civil liability for accidents remains with vehicle owners and that cybersecurity and data procedures are mandatory, so educators should partner with industry for live pilots and meet compliance needs (for example by using privacy and DPIA prompt libraries tailored to Swiss schools).

For a practical regulatory summary see Pestalozzi's legal update and BFH's research on test sites and teaching.

Use case	Key rule (2025)	Immediate education impact
Highway pilot (Level 3)	Drivers may release steering but must be ready to retake control	Training on takeover prompts, situational awareness
Driverless on routes	Cantonal approval + remote monitoring by qualified operator	Courses on teleoperation, control‑centre procedures
Automated parking	Allowed in designated areas; cybersecurity & data logging required	Cybersecurity, data management and legal modules

“In instances where the business case involving an operator in the vehicle is not profitable, the cost-efficiency of automation in conjunction with monitoring by a control centre can be assessed.” - Raphael Murri, Head of the Institute for Energy and Mobility Research

Switzerland's homegrown answer to closed-source chatbots is already here in the form of Apertus - a fully open, transparent multilingual foundation model built by EPFL, ETH Zurich and CSCS that education leaders should watch closely: released under a permissive open licence and available through partners such as Swisscom, Apertus ships in 8B and 70B parameter sizes, is trained on some 15 trillion tokens, and explicitly includes under‑served languages like Swiss German and Romansh, making it a rare tool for regionally relevant tutoring, translation and curriculum‑adaptation projects; practical use in classrooms will still require the usual data‑governance and compute plumbing, but Apertus' open weights, documentation and reproducible training recipes mean universities, SMEs and EdTech teams can customise models for assessment, feedback and multilingual content without vendor lock‑in - see the project announcement and technical details on the ETH Zurich press release and the Swiss AI Initiative pages for downloads, hosting options and the Swiss {ai} Weeks testing programme.

“Apertus is built for the public good. It stands among the few fully open LLMs at this scale and is the first of its kind to embody multilingualism, transparency and compliance as foundational design principles.”

Switzerland's ERI priorities for 2025–28 put AI squarely at the centre of a pragmatic, opportunity‑focused agenda: federal support aims to turn AI from a research topic into reliable tools for teaching, industry and public policy while safeguarding rights and openness, and the playbook includes boosting project funding, strengthening international networks and pushing the digital transformation across teaching and research.

The State Secretariat's overview highlights coordinated measures - from federal backing for specialised institutes and the SDSC to cantonal responsibility for curricular integration - while universities such as ETH and EPFL concentrate resources (more than 150 professorships linked to AI) to sustain excellence and custom tools for Swiss languages and sectors; at the same time a new ERI funding period capped at CHF 29.2 billion raises a clear “so what?”: tight budgets mean leaders must prioritise scalable pilots, partnerships with industry and data‑infrastructure work that turn AI experiments into classroom value.

Practical levers include targeted SNSF project funding, strengthened academia‑industry bridges and national data‑and‑skills programmes - see the federal ERI AI overview and the swissuniversities strategy for full context and implementation guidance.

Indicator	Value / Focus	Source
ERI funding cap (2025–2028)	CHF 29.2 billion	e2-news / ERI Dispatch
AI professorships at ETH & EPFL	More than 150	SERI: Artificial intelligence in the ERI sector
SNSF priorities (2025–2028)	International networks, digitalisation, sustainability, exploit research potential	SNSF multi‑year programme

“We need to strengthen international research networks, leverage the full potential of research, act together to create a sustainable future and drive forward the digital transition in science.” - Matthias Egger, President of the National Research Council

ETH Zurich offers a practical blueprint Swiss educators can adopt today: clear, evolving guidance that frames generative AI as a companion for teaching while insisting on responsibility, transparency and fairness - summarised in its

“Generative AI in Teaching and Learning” guidance (downloadable from ETH Zurich's AI in Education page)

and updated with clarifications in December 2024; the institution pairs policy with concrete support, from Innovedum funding for classroom AI projects to UTL workshops and ETH Library courses that teach staff how to use tools like Microsoft Copilot safely (ETH notes Copilot can be used within protected accounts so inputs are not used to train public models).

Students are urged to declare any AI use and remain accountable under existing

“declaration of originality”

rules, while lecturers must quality‑check AI‑generated materials and adapt assessments to preserve authentic competencies - practical steps that turn abstract compliance into classroom practice.

For teams planning pilots, ETH's announcement of new guidelines and its hands‑on workshops make a compelling template for balancing innovation with the legal and pedagogical safeguards Swiss schools need; enquiries can be directed to ETH Zurich AI in Education contact (ai-edu@ethz.ch).

SMEs and EdTech startups in Switzerland are uniquely positioned to turn AI from promise into classroom impact - but success hinges on plumbing, partners and proof: CorpIn's 2025 analysis shows 48% of Swiss firms already using AI while 65% have made it a strategic priority, yet only 8% report fully consistent data and many cite skill gaps and integration hurdles, so quick wins come from tight pilots with clear KPIs rather than feature chase; practical support is available - SAIROP maps the national AI research and services ecosystem and runs workshops, ideation frameworks and upskilling offers that help small teams bridge data and expertise shortages, and evidence-based adoption guides urge schools to demand measurable learning gains before scaling.

For fledgling EdTechs the clearest path is simple: partner with research networks, run short adaptive pilots tied to outcomes, and bake compliance and DPIAs into design so innovations scale without legal or pedagogical surprises - otherwise even the best model risks being like a Swiss watch with sand in the gears.

Indicator	Value	Source
Swiss companies using AI (initial processes)	48%	CorpIn AI Trends 2025 - Swiss AI Adoption Report
Companies with AI in long‑term strategy	65%	CorpIn AI Trends 2025 - Swiss AI Adoption Report
Companies with fully consistent data structures	8%	CorpIn AI Trends 2025 - Swiss AI Adoption Report
SME ecosystem & collaboration hub	SAIROP (events, services, training)	SAIROP - Swiss AI Research & Services Ecosystem

“SAIROP aligns with my mission to advance technology transfer, making groundbreaking research accessible and beneficial to society.” - Benjamin Sawicki, NCCR Automation

Swiss educators preparing classrooms, LMS contracts and vendor procurements must treat legal, IP and liability issues as operational rather than academic: the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) already applies to AI‑supported processing, so transparency, DPIAs for high‑risk uses and notice of automated individual decisions (Article 21) are frontline obligations that schools cannot defer; see FDPIC guidance on AI and data protection (Switzerland).

Contracts with vendors should demand clear provenance and quality guarantees for training data, model‑scope clauses, audit rights and processor agreements that mirror FDPA requirements, because unauthorised copying of copyrighted training material can trigger infringement claims and trade‑secret or unfair‑competition liability.

Intellectual property law in Switzerland still recognises only natural persons as inventors or authors, so purely AI‑generated works typically lack patent or copyright protection - another reason to contractually secure exclusivity and attribution where needed.

Liability sits with people and organisations: negligent procurement, weak governance or ignored DPIAs can lead to civil claims and, in wilful cases, personal fines (up to CHF 250,000) with limited company fines (up to CHF 50,000) where individual attribution is impracticable.

Practical checklist items for schools: run a DPIA before pilots, include data‑transfer and audit clauses in procurement, name a responsible contact for FDPIC enquiries, and document human review steps for any automated decisions to keep classrooms compliant and trustworthy; see Global Legal Insights - AI, Machine Learning & Big Data Laws 2025: Switzerland.

Issue	What Swiss law requires / consequence
Automated individual decisions	Inform subjects; allow human review (Article 21 FADP)
High‑risk AI processing	DPIA required; consult FDPIC if residual risk remains
Sanctions	Personal fines up to CHF 250,000; company fine up to CHF 50,000 if individual cannot be identified
IP	Patents/copyrights generally for natural persons; contract/trade‑secret protection advised for models/data

Conclusion and next steps for Swiss educators and EdTechs are clear and practical: with the Federal Council's February 12, 2025 decision to ratify the Council of Europe AI Convention and Switzerland's signature of the Convention on March 27, 2025, policy will evolve through sector‑specific law and non‑binding measures rather than a single

Swiss AI Act

, so schools should treat governance and data work as urgent operational tasks (the Federal Administration timeline targets a draft bill and implementation plan by the end of 2026).

Priorities for immediate action include running DPIAs and privacy checks under the FADP before pilots, designing short adaptive learning trials with tight KPIs to prove learning gains, embedding contractual model‑and‑data provenance clauses in procurement, and preparing for cross‑border obligations if products touch EU markets - while regulators such as OFCOM, FDPIC and FINMA publish targeted guidance.

Treat the district's data plumbing as the classroom's nervous system: without clean inputs, even the best model misfires. For practical legal context see the Chambers practice guide and the Federal Council overview, and for hands‑on staff training consider career‑focused courses like the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus to build prompt, tool and deployment skills that map to Swiss needs (Chambers Practice Guide: AI 2025 - Switzerland, Swiss Federal Council: Artificial Intelligence policy overview, Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus).

Milestone	Date / Target
Federal Council decision on regulatory approach	12 Feb 2025
Switzerland signs Council of Europe AI Convention	27 Mar 2025
Draft bill & non‑binding measures due for consultation	By end of 2026