Anthropic, an AI safety and research company based in California, is seeking research scientists and engineers in Zurich - positions that come with an enviable (even by Swiss standards) annual salary ranging from 280,000 to 680,000 francs.
At the upper end of that range, that works out to over 56,000 francs a month.
"A veritable bidding war seems to have broken out for the brightest minds in the development of AI models," said Swiss economics professor Michael Siegenthaler.
“I do not consider these salaries to be unrealistic.”
Only the highly-qualified need apply
However, AI consultant Mike Schwede said in interview with Nau news portal that only the most experienced specialists are entitled to a salary in this bracket.
“Top-tier positions typically require a PhD and original publications. Those who merely apply models are replaceable; but those who understand, debug, and improve Transformer architectures and optimisation algorithms from the ground up are not."
Also, "developing an AI model in a lab is one thing; deploying it stably for millions of users is what companies pay top salaries for."
Fortunately for Anthropic and other companies in this sector, Switzerland has no shortage of qualified candidates.
According to the 2026 AI Index Report, the country recorded 110.5 AI researchers and developers per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025, placing it in the first place worldwide in terms of AI expert density.
And this brings up a legitimate question: Will the AI create new employment opportunities in Switzerland, or will it result in job cuts?
In its recent report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said that, “A look at today’s job market suggests new entry-level roles are evaporating as leaders across industries embrace artificial intelligence to handle foundational tasks, from data entry to coding to customer support. For instance, postings for entry-level jobs in the US have plummeted by 35 percent in the last 18 months, in large part because of AI.”
And what is the situation in Switzerland?
It doesn’t appear to be dire, at least currently.
A recent survey of Swiss companies carried out by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), found that “a clear majority of the company representatives interviewed said that AI was not changing their staff needs at present.”
In fact, a number of firms had pointed out that “the initial aim of AI is to improve the quality of services, deploy their workforce more systematically, or reduce the amount of work that has to be outsourced to external service providers.“
However – and this is the ‘bad news’ part – companies do expect "to see staff reductions in the coming years.”
As for positions likely to be most affected by AI-related redundancies, the SNB study points to software development, human resources, accounting, legal services, as well as marketing, among others.
Also, there is no indication that AI is behind thousand of jobs that had been lost in Switzerland in 2025 and those still to be cut in 2026.
In all these cases, redundancies were (and will be) due primarily to cost-cutting measures, relocation of operations abroad, or internal restructuring.
READ MORE: The companies in Switzerland that are cutting jobs in 2026
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