Video: No, robots won't take your job -- just part of it
Currently, workers spend only 44 percent of their time on their primary duties, mainly because email, meetings, and non-essential tasks take up the bulk of their working week.
Cloud-based enterprise work management solutions provider Workfront released a report showing that US workers are largely optimistic about the impact automation will have in the workplace.
Its annual State of Enterprise Work report aims to capture how work is currently being done and what challenges office workers see in the present.
Workfront surveyed 2001 US residents who worked for companies with over 500 employees. These employees worked on computers and collaborated on projects. It wanted to record how workers see current workplace trends playing out in the near future.
The report highlighted three major themes:
So, while the overwhelming view on automation was positive, one in three (34 percent) feared that "men and women in my line of work will be competing with robots, machines, and/or artificial intelligence." Eighty-six percent of respondents agreed with the sentiment that "the use of automation in the workplace will let us think of work in new and innovative ways," whilst 82 percent expressed excitement at the chance "to learn new things as the workforce moves toward more automation."
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Alex Shootman, president and CEO of Workfront, said: "Popular culture may depict automation in dystopian terms, but the reality is that the majority of workers are optimistic about automation because they understand how it helps them focus on high-value tasks at work.:
Although automation seems like it is poised to take over our lives at home and work, there is hope. More than half or respondents (52 percent) agreed that "no matter how sophisticated artificial intelligence becomes, there will always be the need for the human touch in the workplace."
Even though humans might be just fixing the machines in the fully automated office.
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