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London, UK (BBN) - Robots may take four million British jobs in the private sector within the next decade, some business leaders believe.
Those surveyed for by YouGov for the Royal Society of Arts said 15 per cent of all jobs were under threat, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The most vulnerable fields are finance and accounting, transportation and distribution, manufacturing and marketing and public relations, the survey found.
But the research was not all doom and gloom, noting that technological advance creates new jobs, partly because increased productivity reduces prices freeing up consumers to spend money elsewhere in the economy.
The RSA added that AI and robotics will mostly automate individual tasks rather than replace whole jobs.The report summary reads: 'Our first conclusion is that AI and robotics are more likely to alter jobs than to eliminate them.
'Despite impressive advances in machine capability, many tasks remain outside of their scope, particularly those demanding manual dexterity and deeper forms of creativity and communication.
'Moreover, automation tends to be task-based rather than job-based, allowing workers to pivot into new roles should machines encroach on their turf.
'No single device can wholly substitute for retail assistants, care workers, hotel receptionists or building labourers.
In July research found robots and artificial intelligence could replace up to 15 million jobs.
A study found that the increasing automation of jobs will hit poorer workers hardest and will further set back social mobility unless urgent action is taken.
The research warns that automation could create a society in which an elite, high-skilled group dominates the higher echelon of society while a lower-skilled, low-income group is left with little opportunity to climb the social ladder.
JOHN LEWIS BOSS WARNS OF JOB LOSSES TO ROBOTS
Robots could take jobs from human workers and potentially spark an employment crisis, the boss of John Lewis warned last month.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, 50, said new technologies, such as robots, would create massive changes across industry, with British businesses potentially among the hardest hit.
Workers undertaking manual labour, such as stocking shelves in a department store or working as a cashier, could be among the first to lose out to robots as the technology involved becomes more widespread - self-service tills already exist.
Sir Charlie, the chairman of John Lewis Partnership, said that the impact of job automation was being grossly underestimated by British industry.
The research was published in a report from the Sutton Trust, an educational charity in the UK that aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage.
Social mobility is the ability of individuals, families or groups to move up or down the social ladder in a society.
'The rise of robotics is taking away the traditional ladders of opportunity in the workplace,' Lee Elliot Major, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, told Sky News.
'What we're worried about is that those are taking the paraprofessional jobs - the jobs that were the stepping stones for people to rise up the social ladder.
'People from poorer backgrounds will be disproportionately affected because those are the people that have these jobs normally.'
In its report, published in full today, the Sutton Trust states that improved social mobility should lead to better matching of people with jobs in the UK.
This could increase the UK's GDP by as much as 2 per cent (around £39 billion or $50 billion), the report suggests.
The Trust finds that 'soft skills', such as confidence and communication, are set to become more valuable as jobs become increasingly automated.
This would benefit those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds who 'typically have greater opportunities to develop these skills,' the report states.
It adds that those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will be hit hardest by the changes because they may be less able to invest in courses to learn new skills.
The report finds that up to 15 million jobs could disappear due to 'technological disruption'.
These are likely to be 'routine jobs' that are easily automated or paraprofessional jobs that do not require a professional license.
The report states that both of these job classes are 'stepping stones to social mobility'.
The changes could generate two distinct groups: An elite high-skilled group dominating the higher echelon of society, and a lower-skilled, low-income group with limited prospects of upward mobility and facing a broken social ladder, the report states.
In the light of the research, Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, called for young people from low and moderate income backgrounds to be equipped with 'essential life skills'.
'This research confirms how the labour market is likely to become increasingly volatile as more jobs become automated,' he said.
'Unless we address the challenges of automation, social mobility could be further set back.
'Business leaders already cite how important 'essential life skills' like confidence, articulacy and social skills are to addressing the skills gap.
'For young people from low and moderate income backgrounds to be competitive we need to equip them with these skills.'
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