A vacuum cleaner with a robotic arm. A dog robot providing care for patients with dementiaA syndrome associated with memory loss and other declining brain functions. . An electric spoon designed to reduce your salt intake.

These are just some of the radicalExtreme. new designs making waves at CESThe Consumer Electronics Show 2025, the world's largest annual technology trade show.¹ Thousands of companies will show off their innovations.

But robots are no longer limited to the showroom. Across the world, companies are racing to make robot factory workers and put robot maids on the shelves.²

Are we entering a brave new robotic world? So say the optimists. Experts think the industry could represent a global revenueIncome. opportunity of $24 trillion - just short of a quarter of global GDPShort for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country..³

This is partly because in many large developed economies, businesses are turning to robots for cheap, reliable labour. After all, automatedWhen a job is done by machines instead of humans. workers do not demand a salaryHow much someone earns for doing their job. . They do not take time off for sickness, to go on holiday or to start a family.

AdvocatesSomeone who publicly supports or recommends a particular policy. The word originates from the Latin vocare, meaning to call. insist that the idea is to create technology that helps people to do their jobs better, rather than replacing them.

But others have less faith in our bright, metal future. They say that a "fourth industrial revolutionA period of sudden, rapid industrialisation that transforms a country from an agricultural to an industrial economy." will cause millions or even billions to lose their jobs and livelihoods.

Workers have gone on strikeWhen people refuse to work until their demands for changes have been met. in a number of industries due to anxieties about automation. From dockworkers to scriptwriters, many have turned to industrial action as a last resort to fend off the robots and protect their right to work.

But there is no fending off technological progress, say some. The wheels are already in motion. All we can do is embrace the robots, or prepare to go to war against the future.

Will having a job be a luxury?

Yes: Advocates of the robots will tell us that human skills will always be needed. But what employer will volunteer to pay an imperfect human a high salary, when a perfect robot can do their job for free?

No: According to the World Economic Forum, AI will replace over 85 million jobs this year. But it will also create over 97 million new ones. Technology is not supposed to replace us, it is meant to do the grunt work so that we can have better jobs and a higher quality of life.

Or... We should be more concerned about our lives than our jobs. Lead researchers have repeatedly highlighted that the fast-paced growth of AI and the inability of governments to effectively regulate the industry could pose an existentialRelating to the state of human existence. Existential dread can refer to grappling with your own experiences of responsibility and death. threat.

Dementia - A syndrome associated with memory loss and other declining brain functions. 

Radical - Extreme.

CES - The Consumer Electronics Show

Revenue - Income.

GDP - Short for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country.

Automated - When a job is done by machines instead of humans.

Salary - How much someone earns for doing their job.

Advocates - Someone who publicly supports or recommends a particular policy. The word originates from the Latin vocare, meaning to call.

Industrial Revolution - A period of sudden, rapid industrialisation that transforms a country from an agricultural to an industrial economy.

Strike - When people refuse to work until their demands for changes have been met.

Existential - Relating to the state of human existence. Existential dread can refer to grappling with your own experiences of responsibility and death.