A third of employees would prefer a robot boss – if it is friendly

If popular workplace myths were true, the majority of workers would jump at the chance to replace their boss with a robot. But in reality, this is not the case according to a survey of more than 1,000 managers spread across the US.

Only 20% would replace their current boss with a non-human found Leadx. Only when they were offered the choice of a friendly android boss (like C-3PO from Star Wars) did the figure rise to 30%.

But why do employees want to replace their boss with a robot in the first place? From plain and simple not liking their boss, other reasons included bias/favouritism, incompetence and interestingly, lacking people skills.

“This simple survey is less about AI and robotics and more about employee engagement. It’s telling that the 20%-30% of people who would willingly replace their human boss with a robot is about the same percentage of people who are consistently classified as “actively disengaged” at work in employee engagement surveys. People are very willing to work with technology—especially in humanoid form—if it means getting rid of their bad boss,’’ said a spokesman from Leadx.