A tinny voice asks, "Would you like fries with that?" A flashing screen says, "That colour really brings out your eyes." Welcome to our automated future, where more than 40 per cent of Canadian jobs have been replaced by technology. "Our findings show that a significant percentage of Canadian jobs are at a high risk of being replaced by automation over the next 10 to 20 years," Brookfield Institute for Innovation Entrepreneurship executive director Sean Mullin said in a written statement. In a report released Wednesday, the Ryerson University-based institute says that nearly 42 per cent of Canada's workforce is at a high risk of being affected by automation over the next two decades. You can see what the probability of automation in your field is via this interactive chart.

More than 40 per cent of the Canadian workforce is at high risk of being replaced by technology and computers in the next two decades, according to a new report out Wednesday. The Brookfield Institute for Innovation Entrepreneurship at Toronto's Ryerson University said in its report that automation previously has been restricted to routine, manual tasks. However, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and advanced robotics now means that automation is moving into "cognitive, non-routine tasks and occupations, such as driving and conducting job interviews." The institute put a 70 per cent or higher probability that "high risk" jobs will be affected by automation over the next 10 to 20 years, and it said workers in the most susceptible jobs typically earn less and have lower education levels than the rest of the Canadian labour force. "We don't believe that all of these jobs will be lost," said Sean Mullin, executive director of the Brookfield Institute, in a release.