Human employees trust robots more than they trust other humans. 

Industrial automation is a major risk to jobs, according to thought leaders like Elon Musk. Even though robots could replace up to 800 million jobs by 2030, employees are happy to see their bosses go.

“The latest advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are rapidly reaching [the] mainstream, resulting in a massive shift in the way people across the world interact with technology and their teams. As this study shows, the relationship between humans and machines is being redefined at work. And there is no one-size-fits-all approach to successfully managing this change. Instead, organizations need to partner with their HR organization to personalize the approach to implementing AI at work in order to meet the changing expectations of their teams around the world,” said Emily He, SVP, Human Capital Management Cloud Business Group, Oracle.

Industrial Automation: How Will Workers Feel?

Roughly two-thirds of global workers would trust a robot boss more than a real person. This data comes from a survey from Oracle and Future Workplace. Data shows that 64% of workers around the globe show more trust in robot managers than a human one. That figure jumps to nearly 90% when polling employees in China and India. In China and India, companies have adopted artificial intelligence at a rate of 77% and 78%, respectively.

Those figures are well above the rates of countries like France (32%) and Japan (29%).

“Over the past two years, we’ve found that workers have become more optimistic as they’ve adopted AI in the workplace and HR is leading the way. The 2019 study shows that AI is redefining not only the relationship between worker and manager but also the role of a manager in an AI-driven workplace. Based on the findings, managers will remain relevant in the future if they focus on being human and using their soft skills while leaving the technical skills and routine tasks to robots,” said Dan Schawbel, Research Director at Future Workplace.

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