One Third of Americans Prefer a Software Robot Over a Human Boss

Digitization and automation are ever-growing topics in relation to the workplace. A famous Oxford study on the future of employment from 2013 estimated that up to 47% of American jobs may be automated by 2035; a brand new McKinsey study shows that current technologies could automate 45 percent of job activities; and the business mantra goes that if you can digitize, you should digitize to gain a competitive advantage. But how do we, as human beings, really feel about potentially working with or even for AIs, and what impact do we think they will have on our workplace? A recent study conducted in the US, UK and Denmark explores people's openness towards working with and for "unbiased computer programs"--defined as "a software robot that makes decisions or proposals for decisions based on data from HR, financial or market information. The software robot is unbiased, i.e. it is not affected by the personal, social and cultural bias that influence human decision making, but balances all input only based on the data."