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Use of digital public services continues to grow

73 % (+4 %) of the general public opts for online access at least half of the time, to complete their tax return or to buy the e-vignette, the electronic motorwax tax sticker. Flexibility to access the services at any time and the resulting time savings remain the main reasons for using e-services. Increasingly, the general public would like to have access to a broader range of digital services, such as reporting of petty offences (45 %), domicile and vehicle registrations (43 %), and options to order various documents.

Trust in online government services is high and continuing to rise

The general public’s trust in online government services at all federal levels is growing which is a good prerequisite for using digital government services. Respondents generally have a particularly high level of confidence
in the services provided by cantonal authorities.

The general public and the businesses predominantly
contact public authorities using email

The general public primarily contacts public authorities by email, via portals for digital services, via contact forms, or by telephone. Face-to-face contact, for example at a front desk, is also quite popular. Businesses primarily use email to contact public authorities. They are also keen on contact
via telephone and portals.

Obstacles to the use of digital government services

Of the businesses surveyed, 10 % identify obstacles to the use of digital government services, which represents a significantly lower proportion than for the general public. Businesses believe the following factors are a
particular hindrance:

• complex and time-consuming registration processes
• it is too complicated to find the right government services
• a lack of centralised access to public authority services

These factors are also assessed more critically than in previous surveys.

According to 53 % of the general public (an increase of 6 percentage points from 2021), the biggest obstacle to the use of digital government services is that they are difficult to find.

Data protection concerns are mainly a question of the age of the users

A lack of information on data protection is also a hindrance in the use of digital government services. However, while only 4 % of participants aged under 24 see it as an obstacle, up to 23 % of those aged over 55 do.

Most individuals obtain information via search engines

The in-depth interviews further demonstrate that the majority of respondents use popular search engines such as Google as their first port of call when looking for information. Interviewees mentioned only a few specific cases where they would go directly to public authority websites.

What needs to improve for users

The general public (53 %) would like better information about what services are available online and how they can be used as well as for the services to be more user-friendly (52 %). User-friendliness is also important to businesses. This opinion is therefore expressed by half of businesses in German-speaking Switzerland and almost 40 % of those in both French-speaking areas and Ticino. Just under 40 % of all businesses also stated that better information is needed about what services can be accessed online, and that they would like access to all services in one central location, rather than having to visit different websites and portals. 36 % would like the relevant government services to be easier to find.

The Confederation and cantons are prioritising the introduction of the e-ID

As regards priority objectives for e-government services, the Confederation and cantons place the introduction of a state-recognised e-ID in first place, while it is the second-ranked goal for the communes. The top priority of the communes is to work together to expand digital government services across Switzerland.

Authorities would like more
processes to be seamless

Public authority representatives would like to be able to offer more processes and services without media discontinuity. They believe it is particularly important to develop end-to-end digital public services. 

Cantons and communes are increasingly working together on e-government.

Communes and cantons have stepped up cooperation on e-government matters since 2021. Over 40 % of communes and almost 60 % of cantons now have relevant agreements in place, and the proportion of legally regulated cooperative agreements has increased significantly.

Detailed report on AI to be published

The target groups were asked about artificial intelligence (AI) in this survey. A detailed report on how highly population, companies and administrations rate their knowledge of AI, where they already use AI or how they would like to use it in the future will be published at a later date.