Are robots taking over the world? Their role is greatly exaggerated

It might be easy to assume that robots are causing significant disruption to the labor market by replacing human workers, especially when considering examples such as chatbots acting as more effective customer service representatives or computer programs handling package tracking and shipping without human intervention.

According to research by Eric Darling, a sociology professor at Brigham Young University, there is no need to worry that robots are about to take over jobs. Darling's research shows that the rate at which robots are replacing humans is not as high as many people think, and people tend to greatly overestimate the extent to which robots will take over the workforce.

The study, recently published in the journal Socius, Sociology for a Dynamic World, found that only 14% of workers said they had seen their jobs replaced by robots. But those who had experienced job displacement by robots exaggerated the impact of robots taking jobs away from humans by about three times.

To understand the relationship between job loss and robots, Dalin surveyed nearly 2,000 employees about their views on jobs being replaced by robots. Respondents were first asked to estimate the percentage of employees whose jobs were replaced by robots by their employers. Then, they were asked whether their employers had ever replaced their jobs with robots.

Those who have experienced job replacement by robots (about 14%) estimate that 47% of all jobs have been replaced by robots. Similarly, those who have not experienced job replacement still estimate that 29% of jobs have been replaced by robots.

"Overall, our perceptions of robot replacement are greatly exaggerated," Darling said. "Those who didn't lose their jobs overestimated by about a factor of two, while those who did lose their jobs overestimated by about a factor of three."

Fear of automation is nothing new and dates back centuries.

The study authors believe that sensational headlines in recent years that depict a grim employment future driven by ever-expanding technology may have exaggerated the threat of robots taking all our jobs. Interestingly, Professor Dahlin added that people have been worried about being replaced by automated processes since the early 1800s.

“We want to adopt new technologies without regard to all the relevant contextual barriers, such as the cultural, economic and governmental arrangements that support the manufacture, sale and use of that technology,” he explains. “But just because a technology can be used for something doesn’t mean it will be implemented.

The researchers note that their work is broadly consistent with previous findings that robots are not replacing the vast majority of workers. Instead, most workplaces are integrating new technologies in a way that generates more value from human labor.

Darling said the findings are consistent with previous research that shows robots are not replacing workers. Instead, workplaces are integrating employees and robots in ways that create more value for human labor. An everyday example is an autonomous, self-propelled machine roaming the shelves and cleaning the floors at your local grocery store. The robot cleans the floors while employees clean under shelves or other hard-to-reach areas.