Research - 09.06.2026 - 09:00
AI automates tasks, but not corporate culture. The study “Trendbarometer Employer Attractiveness ” by the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St.Gallen (IFPM-HSG) and the Centre for Employer Attractiveness (zeag) analyses how this affects organisations. The study is based on data from 94 German companies with more than 19,000 respondents.
According to the study’s author, Professor Heike Bruch, professor of Leadership at HSG, employers will in future be judged on their ability to guide employees through digital transformation without exhausting their organisation. “Artificial intelligence is, above all, a cultural transformation. Many companies underestimate this. Technology and tools can be bought. Trust, a willingness to change and digital leadership cannot,” says Bruch.
Technology is also changing the very reason why people want to work for a company in the first place. For a long time, “employer branding” was seen as a discipline of glossy campaigns, benefits and career websites. The “Trendbarometer” study points to a shift: according to it, it is only desirable for rare skilled workers to work for a company if it is able to organise technological change in a credible and human way.
Only 34 per cent of companies are currently rated as “attractive” or “very attractive” by their employees. At the same time, companies are under immense pressure. A shortage of skilled workers, demographic change, AI transformation and the new expectations of Generation Z are all converging simultaneously.
The team of researchers at HSG – Heike Bruch, Anna Stolle and Mara Jordan – speak of an “AI culture”. This does not refer to the use of individual AI tools, but rather to a company’s cultural ability to deal productively with technological change. Three factors are said to be crucial to this: a digital mindset, an AI strategy and digital leadership.
According to the study, a digital mindset – that is, the ability to view new technologies not as a threat but as an opportunity – has a particularly strong impact. Companies with a strong AI culture are perceived as significantly more attractive. Further developing this culture could boost employer attractiveness by up to 21 per cent.
This is accompanied by a major shift in the labour market. Employees today no longer ask only about salary or working from home, but increasingly also: Am I working in a future-proof role or company? Am I learning to use AI productively? Or will I be left behind technologically? This question is particularly pressing for those starting their careers. This is because AI primarily automates standardised knowledge work – the very tasks through which many have traditionally entered the workforce.
At the same time, the survey shows that many companies are culturally ill-prepared for the AI transformation. Only 28 per cent have a distinct AI culture at all. Digital leadership – that is, the ability to lead remotely and digitally – is strongly developed in just 12 per cent of companies. Particularly striking here is a term that has run through Heike Bruch’s research for years: the “acceleration trap”. This refers to a state of permanent overload in which employees have to cope with too many tasks at once with too few resources. The Trendbarometer shows that this exhaustion is once again becoming one of the biggest obstacles to the appeal of modern work.
In addition to the acceleration trap, the researchers identify “corrosive energy”, resigned inertia, centralisation and “laissez-faire” leadership as key problems in many organisations. ‘AI offers enormous opportunities. The greatest danger, however, is overheating. Already today, 75% of companies are caught in the acceleration trap. It becomes dangerous where AI accelerates overheating,” says Bruch. This creates a paradoxical picture: companies are trying to accelerate transformation even further – but in doing so often lose precisely those people who are supposed to drive this change.
The authors derive five key recommendations from the findings:
6. Assessing corporate culture: Companies should systematically analyse the actual strength of the drivers and brakes affecting employer attractiveness. Energy levels, leadership quality and digital maturity are particularly relevant here.
7. Reducing negative dynamics: Companies must work harder to reduce overload, frustration and political friction in order to avoid over-acceleration.
8. Strengthen positive energy: At the same time, it is important to foster trust, autonomy and collaboration in order to mobilise positive energy.
9. Developing AI culture in a targeted manner: It is not individual AI tools that determine future viability, but an organisation’s ability to culturally integrate technological change. Successful companies therefore promote a digital mindset, digital leadership and strategic clarity.
10. Systematically tackling AI transformation: Use AI culture as a key lever to shape digital transformation. It forms the basis for the next steps in the transformation.
What makes companies attractive to skilled workers in the long term is therefore less a matter of technology and more a matter of culture: people want a strong culture of trust, a positive and productive atmosphere, and a spirit of internal entrepreneurship. This contradicts the widespread notion that AI is primarily a matter of technology or efficiency. Unlike technology that can be purchased, trust, guidance and a willingness to embrace change are areas in which an organisation must invest for the long term.
“Employer attractiveness remains an emotional challenge and will in future be further shaped by AI-driven cultural transformation,” says Heike Bruch, summarising the findings of the survey. This is where the real management challenge lies in the coming years. Companies must accelerate their digitalisation whilst simultaneously providing direction. Or to put it another way: those who view AI merely as a software project are likely to lose out in the competition for talent.
The “Employer Attractiveness Trendbarometer” is produced in cooperation between IFPM-HSG and zeag GmbH. Together, they compile the TOP JOB analysis on employer attractiveness and corporate sustainability. It identifies areas for improvement and recognises outstanding companies as Germany’s best employers. The authors of the study are Prof. Dr Heike Bruch, Mara Jordan and Anna Stolle. On behalf of zeag GmbH, CEO Silke Masurat is responsible for the analysis.
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