Robots may be coming to a company near you in the next two years

In a few years, you may have a few coworkers who are made out of metal and wires as business leaders increasingly cozy up to the idea of robotics in the workplace.

According to an April report by BlackBerry QNX, 47% of businesses not currently using robotics plan to do so within the next two years. The surveyed technology leaders said they see several opportunities in having robotic automation at work, including growth in productivity and efficiency, a downtick in repetitive tasks, and improvements in work–life balance for human workers.

The report queried 1,000 leaders across various industries and seven countries in March of this year. On average, the business leaders predict almost 20% of their workforce to be replaced by robots in the next decade.

Why IT matters. Winston Leung, a senior strategic alliances manager at QNX, told IT Brew that robotics will likely be a “widespread trend” in the next few years and will introduce a new set of responsibilities for IT employees.

“They need to make sure that all the connections are secure and make sure that the data that they’re getting from the robots is secure and the information that they’re transmitting to and from the robot is also secure,” Leung said. “That protects people.”

Barriers of entry. While business leaders are optimistic about a future with robotic automation in the workplace, there are still several hurdles that stand in the way of adoption. Leung said regions like North America are still taking a more “cautious approach” to deployment.

“There’s a huge, high upfront cost in integration because [of] all these safety dynamics,” Leung said.

He added that fear around job displacement and trusting the technology continues to be a problem, too.

“With the onset of AI and autonomy and the whole aspect of building humanoids, there is a fear that it’s going to turn into what we call the ‘terminators of the world,’” Leung said.