At MUFG, Mike said "robotics process automation" will handle half of branch operations by the end of the business year to March 2024, or 30 percent of the bank's total. By the time of full installation, the automation would have handled the equivalent of 9,500 employee's workload, he said.

IDC predicts that 35 percent of leading organizations in logistics, health, utilities, and resources will explore the use of robots to automate operations by 2019. What does the future hold for robotics? It's hard to say, given the rapid pace of change in the field as well as in associated areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. But one thing seems certain: Robots will play an increasingly important role in business and life in general. Research firm International Data Corp's (IDC) Manufacturing Insights Worldwide Commercial Robotics program recently unveiled its top 10 predictions for worldwide robotics for 2017 and beyond.

IDC predicts that 35 percent of leading organizations in logistics, health, utilities, and resources will explore the use of robots to automate operations by 2019. What does the future hold for robotics? It's hard to say, given the rapid pace of change in the field as well as in associated areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. But one thing seems certain: Robots will play an increasingly important role in business and life in general. Research firm International Data Corp's (IDC) Manufacturing Insights Worldwide Commercial Robotics program recently unveiled its top 10 predictions for worldwide robotics for 2017 and beyond.

Robots have long been a manufacturing mainstay--tasked with doing the heavy lifting on the assembly line or taking over tedious repetitive motions. Up until recently, however, they've been limited to basic activities, typically on the automotive factory floor. But advancements in the form of small, light-weight collaborative robots, cloud analytics and artificial intelligence are ushering in a new era of robot applications and collaboration that will support a wide variety of industries. Industry observers say these new robot systems will transform the way products are made, as well as the way people work. "The next step is changing the way we work globally," said Esben Østergaard, CTO of collaborative robot company Universal Robots during an interview at IMTS 2016.