"Our vision is for the UK to become the best place in the world for business developing and deploying AI to start, grow and thrive, to realise the benefits the technology offers," the report'Growing the artificial intelligence industry in the UK' suggests.

"The sensationalist coverage these stories receive isn't very helpful and obscures the main issues," author Chris Middleton told Sputnik. "We're not talking about C-3P0 sitting at your desk, we're talking about smart devices, industrial machines, drones, autonomous vehicles, plus software that automates technology." Accountancy firm PwC analysed 200,000 jobs across 29 countries and suggests the first wave of job losses will begin in the early 2020s. "When you look at financial services, a lot of jobs are relatively routine jobs such as data analysis," said PwC chief economist John Hawksworth who suggests the closure of bank branches is indicative of the current situation. Around six and eight percent of positions in the financial sector could be lost because "a lot of jobs are relatively routine jobs such as data analysis," he said.

Are you concerned or encouraged by the onset of technologies that provide automation? Technologies including machine learning and robotic process automation are set to eliminate up to 30 percent of human bank jobs, according to a new report. New alternatives to human workers are becoming desirable within the financial services, as the technology for automation is becoming more affordable. Roles under threat typically involve a degree of manual work, the kind that is often involved in managing databases and libraries, tasks that can be handled easily by the algorithms within machine learning. This statistic has come from a new McKinsey & Company report, says Bloomberg, who were told by Jared Moon, a co-writer of the report, that the change will "require people to use new skill sets, taking away manual work but allowing more around analytics, transformation and change."

A wave of innovation has made it possible for people to get their banking done without walking into a branch if they don't want to. People can now deposit checks using a smartphone or digitally fire off cash to friends using Venmo. The end result is a pretty sweet experience for consumers...but an imminent threat to people who work at bank branches. The downsizing of the bank workforce is about to accelerate as more technology takes over jobs humans used to do, according to a new Citigroup report. Another 30% of bank jobs could be lost between 2015 and 2025, mainly due to retail banking automation, Citi warned.