They beat us at chess and trivia, supplant jobs by the thousands, and are about to be let loose on highways and roads as chauffeurs and couriers. Now, fresh signs of robot supremacy are emerging on Wall Street in the form of machine stock analysts that make more profitable investment choices than humans. At least, that's the upshot of one of the first studies of the subject, whose preliminary results were released in January. Buy recommendations peddled by robo-analysts, which supposedly mimic what traditional equity research departments do but faster and at lower costs, outperform their flesh-and-blood counterparts over the long run, according to Indiana University professors. "Using this type of technology to make investment recommendations or to conduct investment analyses is going to become increasingly important," Kenneth Merkley, an associate professor of accounting and one of the authors, said by phone.

They beat us at chess and trivia, supplant jobs by the thousands, and are about to be let loose on highways and roads as chauffeurs and couriers. Now, fresh signs of robot supremacy are emerging on Wall Street in the form of machine stock analysts that make more profitable investment choices than humans. At least that's the upshot of one of the first studies of the subject, whose preliminary results were released in January. Buy recommendations peddled by robo-analysts, which supposedly mimic what traditional equity research departments do but faster and at lower cost, outperform their flesh-and-blood counterparts over the long run, according to Indiana University professors. "Using this type of technology to make investment recommendations or to conduct investment analyses is going to become increasingly important," Kenneth Merkley, an associate professor of accounting and one of the authors, said by phone.

Robots are said to take over some 200,000 jobs on Wall Street over the next decade and a new study suggests this prediction could soon become a reality. Following the analysis of 76,000 reports from seven different robo-analysis firms, researchers determined that the technology is able to make recommendations similar to their human counterparts - but faster and more accurately. Because the automation is less subject to behavioral biases and conflicts of interest, it can produce a more balanced distribution of ratings, which includes investment's risk and suggestions whether to hold, sell or purchase. Looking at the robot portfolios, the study found their buy recommendations earned returns from 6.4 percent to 6.9 percent, while those of its human counterparts only ranged from 1.2 percent to 1.7 percent. Although robo-analysis sounds like it could weed out human investors, researchers believe that as long as there are people that need human interaction, 'the buy-side, the sell-side will still be around.' Because the automation is less subject to behavioral biases and conflicts of interest, it can produce a more balanced distribution of ratings, which includes investment's risk and suggestions whether to hold, sell or purchase (stock photo) The study was conducted by a team at Indiana University, who wrote: 'Our study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the properties of investment recommendations generated by'Robo-Analysts,' which are human-analyst assisted computer programs conducting automated research analysis.