Robot staff on the rise as people now too costly to make use of

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget triggered a surge in demand for bots with execs complaining her hikes made employing human workers too expensive

Robots are on the march as bosses realise they are cheaper to employ than humans.

Everyone is already using technology to their advantage, like a robot vacuum so they don’t have to clean. But it’s not all good, as experts warned kitchen appliances could get too smart in the future.

But recently, Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget triggered a surge in demand for bots with execs complaining her hikes made employing human workers too expensive.

Automate UK, the body for industrial robots, said more than half its members had seen a jump in inquiries since Reeves announced an increase in employers’ National Insurance.

The organisation’s head Peter Williamson said industries that traditionally relied on cheap labour were turning to robots.

Sales of industrial bots have risen in food and drink, logistics and consumer goods sectors which rely on low-wage workers.

Currently UK manufacturers employ 98 robots per 10,000 workers – way below South Korea, Germany and Japan.

But Mr Williamson said this has started to change as higher employment costs were forcing companies to reconsider.

From April employers’ National Insurance contributions will rise from 13.8% to 15%.

Mark Gray, at Universal Robots, said: “Companies we spoke to three years ago still have the same problem but they’re more motivated. That increase in NI is starting to make an impact.’’

In other robot news, Elon Musk recently said that AI has already learned everything there is to know about humans. Now, it has enough knowledge to make its own discoveries, he says.

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