19.02.2025

Measures that could be ordered to prevent humanoid robots taking over the labour market

The humanoid robots market is expected to grow from $2.03bn in 2024 to $13.25bn by 2029. Their use is growing in a wide range of industries, from manufacturing to retail, as well as in the healthcare industry, as they can perform without time limits and in theory, error-free, in any task with a predictable routine, offering a level of efficiency today that human workers could not provide, and certainly not at the same cost.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the growth rate in the number of humanoid robots in use is expected to be 200% by 2025, especially in education and healthcare. By humanoid robots, we mean both the category of bipedal robots and those that use wheels/sliding or aquatic variants of locomotion, as long as they can perform tasks similar to those performed by human workers.

In the last 10 years, advances in robotics have allowed artificial intelligence to improve robots' autonomy, their interaction with each other and with human beings, and, above all, their ability to make decisions on their own and to evolve. Humanoid robots can now incorporate capabilities for facial recognition, gesture recognition, voice recognition, as well as human moods, and may be able to adapt to environmental conditions, learn and evolve on their own, decide how to proceed to solve a problem, create plans, organise their work, show predictability, optimise their operations and even provide recommendations for improving the work they are involved in.

The market segment for humanoid robots, both in terms of manufacturing and the provision of services for them, is expected to grow by 50% this year . [1]

China is organising the world's first marathon pitting humans against humanoid robots. The event, to be held in April 2025 in Beijing's Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town), promises to be an unrivalled spectacle, bringing together more than 12,000 participants, both humans and robots from more than 20 companies.

This event marks a historic moment in the evolution of robot technology, as it is the first official competition of its kind. The robots entered must follow strict rules: they cannot have wheels, must be between 46cm and 198cm tall, and must have a mechanical structure that allows them to move bipedally, either walking or running.

These are economic and technical facts. But what impact will these developments have on the labour market and the right to work of human employees?

We believe that, from this perspective, things need to be seen in a nuanced way. First of all, we need to distinguish between the situation of replacing human employees, who are already working in a labour sector, with robots, and the situation of competition between the two categories for jobs.

As we have only considered robots that have human-like motor capabilities, it is obvious that we are not referring to those areas where robots are the only option to carry out an activity, because of the lethal risks that that activity would pose to a human employee.

As for the first situation, it is already being replicated in many of the world's production and service centres, where technology is making it possible to replace people.

Last year, for example, industrial giant BMW began using a humanoid robot for its production lines. The robot, called the Figure 02, is produced by the California-based firm Figure and is on its fourth design version. Compared to its predecessor, the latest robot offers a three-fold increase in computing power and improved voice communication. Incorporating sophisticated cameras, microphones and sensors, it's also equipped with a more powerful battery. The fourth-generation model's hands are the size of an average human hand and offer 16 active degrees of freedom per hand, remarkably close to the strength of a human. The robot can perform, completely autonomously, a variety of human-like tasks requiring precision and dynamic manipulation, complex grasping and two-handed coordination. It can position a range of intricate components with millimetre precision and flexibly move all components, maximising the efficiency of its design.

Naturally, the arguments put forward by employers will always be related to labour efficiency and the possibility of avoiding accidents at work.

The robot's manufacturer justifies its creation on the grounds that "the Figure 02 supports factory employees who perform awkward and ergonomically exhausting tasks to take the strain out of their labour". Clearly, the most important advantage of the robot is that it does not involve limiting working hours to 8, nor does it provide rest leave, maternity leave or social benefits or other expenses that human workers incur.

The efficiency of robots in repetitive work is indisputable. But is this argument enough to make human workers redundant? To a worker who loses his job, the argument that the robot is taking over the heavy tasks instead of humans may seem only cynical, as long as his immediate interest is directly harmed.

Incidentally, on the same note, it is foreseeable that humanoid robots will corner the market for services, not just manufacturing. Replacing a salesperson, an usher, or a host of any kind with a robot involves only a few simple algorithm adaptations. The question is whether this evolution (if it is an evolution) will happen with or without human resistance.

The second part of the problem, the competition between humanoid robots and human beings for the same job, can and should be regulated pre-emptively. In practical terms, the solution would be to prepare a legislative package dedicated to the labour market, which would only allow humanoid robots to take over a limited percentage of this market.

It is equally true that the industries and services in question will be able to claim that the jobs do not even exist, as long as from a social point of view, a  job exists from the moment its pay is taxed (in the private sector) or budgeted (in the public sector).

In concluding this brief exposition of what will become the source of major social upheavals in the near future, we believe that the fate of the future of the labour market depends on the answers to several questions, such as: who is the economy and its efficiency for? For whom do we build and produce goods? Are we just ants erecting Towers of Babel without asking ourselves who they serve and where they end up?

An article by Veronica Dobozi (vdobozi@stoica-asociatii.ro), Partner, STOICA & ASOCIAȚII.