Switzerland ranks first worldwide in IMD’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking among 69 economies but still lags behind in digital public administration. Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, reviews these results and the issues that must be addressed in order to maintain this level of digital competitiveness.
After securing first place in the Global Competitiveness Ranking in June 2025, Switzerland also won the international gold medal for digital competitiveness (World Digital Competitiveness Ranking) last November. The country leads the United States and Singapore, supported by favorable framework conditions, an economy that is highly open to digital technologies, and a strong capacity for adaptation among businesses. Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, which produces these rankings, explains the factors that earned Switzerland its number one position, as well as the challenges that could influence this standing in the medium term.
What exactly does the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking measure?
Arturo Bris: Our report assesses countries’ digital competitiveness, that is, their ability to promote the digital transformation of businesses and individuals. We focus on factors such as the quality of digital infrastructure, a country’s attractiveness for sector talent, and digital capital.
In which areas does Switzerland excel?
Bris: There are three main dimensions. First, the quality and availability of digital talent in the country clearly outperform those of other countries. We assess not only the ability of the education system to produce these profiles, but also countries’ capacity to attract specialists from abroad. Taken separately, Switzerland is not necessarily number one. The US education system produces profiles with more advanced skills, and Singapore attracts more talent. But when these two criteria are combined, Switzerland stands out by a wide margin. The second dimension concerns the quality of Switzerland’s digital infrastructure, which is characterized by network performance, a high level of connectivity, and service reliability. There is also a decisive structural factor: the excellent balance between public and private investment. For example, unlike the United States, where intense competition between operators reduces incentives to invest, Switzerland has a highly concentrated telecommunications sector. Swisscom holds nearly 56% of the market, with a limited number of competitors, which encourages it to continuously upgrade its network in order to retain its customer base.*
How competitive are small and medium-sized enterprises?
Bris: In Switzerland, SMEs have integrated technology at the core of their business models and productivity gains. By way of contrast, Japan is often perceived as one of the most technologically advanced countries. Yet the gap there is striking between industrial giants such as Toyota or Hitachi and an SME landscape that remains largely underdeveloped in digital terms. This integration of technology within Swiss SMEs is also linked to the country’s privileged access to very high-quality digital infrastructure. But it is equally a matter of necessity: Swiss SMEs, most of which operate in the services sector, simply cannot afford to ignore digitalization if they want to remain competitive.
You nevertheless point to certain weaknesses in Switzerland’s digital competitiveness…
Bris: Switzerland does indeed lag significantly behind when it comes to e-government. Estonia, Singapore, the United States, or Saudi Arabia are already several steps ahead. Fines there can be paid via an app, and it is even possible to get married online. In Switzerland, we remain stuck in a mode of operation from the previous century. I was, for example, very disappointed by the outcome of the most recent votes on the e-ID: barely 50.4% of the population approved it, even though most digitally advanced countries have had a digital identity for a long time. This reflects a persistent mistrust of technology. It is time to acknowledge that digitalization will be one of the major drivers of value creation in the years ahead.
How do you see the future of the country’s digital competitiveness?
Bris: I do not believe that Switzerland will remain at the top of our ranking indefinitely. Many countries are now progressing much faster. One of the major challenges will be to preserve the country’s digital strengths in knowledge and innovation. Take AI, for example: Switzerland ranks first worldwide in terms of the number of scientific articles per capita, thanks to substantial investment, particularly from the private sector. But there is no guarantee that it will continue to attract international research funding as other countries catch up in terms of competitiveness.
Another major challenge concerns digital regulation. In the area of AI, for instance, Switzerland is clearly lagging behind the United States and the European Union, both of which have already enshrined a clear regulatory framework for this technology in law. Even in a field where it was once seen as a pioneer, such as the regulation of digital assets, other countries have rapidly closed the gap and overtaken Switzerland over the past five years. The outlook remains favorable, but it is urgent for political and economic decision-makers to fill this regulatory void and develop robust resilience strategies.
*Although the dominance of a single player in a market would normally reduce incentives to invest, in the Swiss market, the dominant player must invest to defend its position against competitors within a highly regulated market.
