A majority of Americans – 65 percent – now believe that robots will “definitely” or “probably” take over much of the work we humans do within 50 years – but less than 20 percent see this transformation happening to their current job.
Despite the fact that this is already happening, many more people are worried about being pushed out because of someone else undercutting them, according to a Pew survey of 2,000 people, rather than their role simply being automated out of existence.
Turns out, people who do physical jobs are way more likely to be worried that they’re about to be automated right now, rather than the person doing the admin job at a desk.
That’s likely because that’s the historic trend, but desk-workers can no longer feel comfortable. Just today, Google showed off the fact that it’s now letting robots teach other robots how to get stuff done.
Overall, managers and executives were the most likely to think their jobs will be eliminated in 50 years’ time, but that’s probably because they think we’ll all have finally realized they’re just sitting in that glass office playing Solitaire all day.
➤ Public Predictions for the Future of Workforce Automation [Pew Research Center]