Children are much more comfortable about the idea of working with robots

A new poll from measurement tech firm Hexagon suggests that younger people have very different ideas to older generations about the idea of working with robots. According to the report, across nine countries, children are growing up with fundamentally different expectations of robotics than today’s adults, shaped by growing up with AI and new experiences of intelligent technology. Four in five children (80 percent) say they are excited about robots, compared with 59 percent of adults. However, that generation gap varies dramatically around the world.

The polling in Britain records a 33-percentage point gap in excitement about robots, the largest of any country surveyed, with 80 percent of children excited compared with 47 percent of adults. By contrast, the gap is just nine points in China (90 percent vs 81 percent), 11 points in India (89 percent vs 78 percent), and 12 points in Brazil (87 percent vs 75 percent). Overall, the findings suggest the Robot Generation is emerging globally, but adults in some countries are much more enthusiastic than others.

Globally, 85 percent have used AI in the past three months, compared with 75 percent of adults, and nearly two-thirds (63 percent) see value in accessing AI chatbots through a physical robot, compared with 47 percent of adults. Children also have greater real-world exposure to robotics. Nearly six-in-ten (58 percent) have encountered a robot firsthand, compared with 48 percent of adults. The contrast is particularly striking in Britain, where adults are more familiar with robots through films, television, books and games (77 percent) than through real-world encounters (30 percent).

Meanwhile, robot scepticism is rife in British adults; they record one of the highest levels of concern over robots (52 percent), compared with 44 percent in China and 29 percent in South Korea. The stark divide suggests that both familiarity and the nature of that exposure, whether through fiction or real-world encounters, could play a powerful role in shaping how people perceive robots.

The divide between today’s adults and tomorrow’s workforce becomes even clearer in the workplace. Robots are already widely accepted as assistants, with 71 percent of adults and 76 percent of children comfortable with them in that role. But acceptance falls as robots are given greater status and authority, and the generations begin to diverge when robots move from assistants to colleagues.

Children are almost 50 percent more likely than adults to be excited about working alongside a robot colleague (59 percent vs 40 percent). In Britain, that workplace divide is particularly pronounced, with 58 percent of children saying they would be excited to work alongside a robot colleague, compared with just 28 percent of adults. What’s more, globally, 20 percent of children compared with 14 percent of adults believe robots could be the boss.