Digital skills and new data: Irene Bertschek on findings from Module 3

Irene Bertschek is a member of the NRP 77 Steering Committee. As an expert in digital economics, she played a key role in evaluating the research results from Module 3 (digital economy and labour market). In this interview, she reveals which results particularly surprised her.

Ms Bertschek, the research work in Module 3 has been completed. What is your overall impression?

Many interesting results have emerged from the research. Our analyses show how digitalisation affects companies and employees, and we have created new data sets to support further research in the future. Additionally, new methods were used or further developed to enable even more precise data analysis.

Which results or projects stand out to you?

Measuring digital transformation is a significant challenge in itself, as it encompasses many aspects. For example, I believe it is important to determine whether and how companies are utilising artificial intelligence, or why they are not adopting AI. It is equally important to ascertain how the requirements for digital skills among different employment groups are changing, and how economic activity is shifting due to the rise of e-commerce. To this end, the projects gathered new data and developed indicators that make it possible to track these developments in Switzerland.

Did any findings surprise you?

I find the results based on a survey of students interesting and surprising. They show that women invest less in acquiring digital skills than men, partly because they underestimate the need for these skills in certain professions and expect lower returns on them compared to men. This is a cause for concern as it jeopardises women's employment and income opportunities. It also shows how important it is to inform young people about the importance of digital skills across various professions. For example, digital skills are not only important in IT professions but also play a key role in scientific, creative and healthcare professions.

What implications do the results have for politics, business and society?

Many findings are based on empirical analyses of extensive data sets, providing valuable insights for politics, business and society into how digitalisation is progressing and how its potential can be better harnessed for innovation and prosperity. For example, the results show which key factors must be in place to achieve productivity gains through digital technologies and how employees can prepare for digital transformation through tailored further training. These insights provide starting points for developing informed policy measures.

An overview of the projects from Module 3.

The results of the individual research projects will be published on the respective project pages throughout the year. At the same time, the Steering Committee is working on a synthesis that summarises the findings of the entire National Research Programme. Completion of this synthesis is planned for mid-2026.