July 14th, 2023, Hoang Nguyen
The manufacturing and factory industry has been undergoing automation for some time now and generative AI may be the next technological advance to further speed up that process. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, for example, has revealed plans to employ more autonomous humanoid robots in factories. These Tesla Bots, or Optimus as Musk calls them, will replace humans for dangerous and repetitive tasks.
In addition, a MIT and Boston University report found that AI is expected to replace roughly two million manufacturing workers in the US alone by 2025.
When we asked global consumers working in the manufacturing industry what they thought about the impact of AI on their current job roles, roughly 20% believed AI might be able to perform most of their current tasks.
A near equal share (17%) believed that AI would be able perform at least some of their jobs, suggesting that while the AI can assume a portion of their job responsibilities, many still believe that certain tasks require the unique capabilities that human workers bring to the table.
Another fifth (18%) of global workers in the manufacturing industry seem skeptical of AI’s ability to perform any of their or their colleagues’ job functions.
As for those working in the transportation and distribution sector, less than a tenth (8%) believe that AI can perform most of their current tasks. Roughly one in 8 (16%) think that AI can perform at least some of their job functions and a quarter (25%) of those working in the transportation and distribution industry believe AI will not be able to perform any of their or their colleagues’ tasks.
Another key takeaway from the survey is that there’s still a fair share of uncertainty around what the future holds in terms of AI’s impact on jobs. Roughly a fifth (21%) of those working in manufacturing jobs and nearly a third (30%) of those working in transportation say they don’t know what effect AI will have on their current job.
Many organizations and industries will pursue and leverage AI to increase productivity and profitability and as we navigate the intersection of this technology and human labor, it will be important for stakeholders to understand and address the attitudes and concerns of their workers.
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