According to the Cc-Ti 2025/2026 economic survey, the bureaucratic load on Ticino businesses keeps growing: 14% of firms spend over 50 hours a month on admin and more than half exceed 10 hours. It's time taken from value-generating work — and largely automatable.
Source: Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Services of Canton Ticino (Cc-Ti), Results of the 2025/2026 economic survey, published 28 January 2026 on a sample of 280 member firms.
What the Cc-Ti data says
The Cc-Ti 2025/2026 economic survey pictures a steadily rising administrative burden. Asked how many hours a month bureaucracy absorbs, 14% of firms answer 50 hours or more, 21% between 20 and 49 hours and another 21% between 10 and 19 hours: more than half the sample therefore exceeds 10 hours a month.
The survey, run between August and November 2025 on 280 member firms employing over 17,000 people, flags high burdens above all on social insurance (57% of responses), labour law and working conditions (54%) and taxes (50%). Cc-Ti openly speaks of an increase in bureaucratic workload that significantly affects how companies are run.
The context doesn't help: planned investments for 2026 fall from 42% to 34% of firms and 20% report shrinking margins. In such a picture, every hour spent on admin weighs more.
Why it concerns every sector
The finding is cross-cutting: it touches the craftsman as much as the trustee, the garage as much as the winery. Bureaucracy doesn't distinguish by trade, and the tighter margins get — as the same survey signals — the more those hours become a cost nobody sees on an invoice but that erodes productive time and the owner's energy.
For an SME the problem isn't only the number of hours: it's who does them. They almost always fall on the entrepreneur or a few key people, and end up outside working hours. That's where errors and missed deadlines are born, precisely in the obligations where an error costs most.
The good news is that much of this load is made of repetitive, predictable tasks — form-filling, communications, summaries, reminders — which is exactly what can be automated well.
How automation gives those hours back
It's not about eliminating obligations, but taking the mechanical part off people. A digital assistant can prepare recurring documents and communications from templates, compile summaries, keep deadlines and reminders under control and tidy the data that's hunted for by hand today. The owner checks and approves, instead of redoing everything from scratch.
It's the kind of work we do at Dedalix, sector by sector: from craftsmen's quotes and documents to communications and traceability for farms. We make AI simple: installation, configuration and training included.
To find out how many hours you can recover in your business, the starting point is a free 60-minute audit: we map where time is lost and what's worth automating first. The plans and prices are transparent on the site.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the 50-hours-a-month figure come from?
From the Cc-Ti 2025/2026 economic survey, published on 28 January 2026 on a sample of 280 Ticino member firms. 14% report 50 hours or more a month of bureaucratic work.
Can automation really reduce bureaucracy?
It doesn't remove the obligations, but it takes away the repetitive part: form-filling, communications, summaries and reminders. That's where hours are recovered and errors and missed deadlines reduced.
Does it apply to a small business too?
Yes, and often especially to small ones: where obligations fall on the owner, every freed hour goes straight back to the work that earns.
How do I know how much I can save?
With a free 60-minute audit we look at your real processes and estimate the recoverable time, before any commitment.