31% happy to work for a robot boss

Nearly a third of British workers would be happy to work for a robot boss, according to a new survey.

The survey from cloud accounting software provider FreeAgent, of 1,000 working British people, also found that 11% of respondents thought a roboboss would be “more efficient” than a human. Meanwhile, one in 10 also said that they think working for a robot boss would be just the same as answering to human boss.

Also, one in four (42%) of British workers also said that they would be “comfortable” taking orders from a non-human boss.

Men were revealed to be more receptive to the idea of a robot boss than women, with 48% of men saying they wouldn’t have a problem taking orders from a robot, compared to only 36% of women.

The survey comes as the Bank of England projects that up to 15 million jobs might be at risk due to robots and as Jeremy Corbyn is expected to set out plans for a robot tax at the Labour Party conference today, echoing Bill Gates call for robot bosses of the future to be taxed.

The poll found that the majority of working Brits (57%) believe that robot bosses should pay tax, agreeing with the statement “if they’re replacing the role of a person, the company owning the robot should be taxed the same”. However, on the other hand, 43% feel that robot bosses shouldn’t pay tax as “it would set a precedent, as other technology doesn’t get taxed like a person”.

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: “The shifting landscape of AI and new technology will have a major impact on people in employment, but I don’t think that this is a gloomy outlook for the workforce. Previous research we’ve carried out has suggested that many employed people are keen to quit their jobs and start their own businesses. So as automation takes a more prominent role in the workforce, it’s likely we could see a self-employment boom in the future.”

“In this scenario, automation will actually be a major benefit for these new businesses, as technological advances will make business admin and data management much easier to manage than ever before.”

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