A vacuum cleaner with a robotic arm. A dog robot providing round-the-clock 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 radical 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 new innovations, with artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence, or "AI," is the ability for a computer to think and learn. With AI, computers can perform tasks that are typically done by people, including processing language, problem-solving, and learning. and robotics taking centre stage.

But robots are no longer limited to the showroom. Humanoid robots are set to enter every part of our lives this year, from the warehouse to the shop floor to our own homes. Across the world, companies are racing to deploy fleets of robot factory workers and put robot maids on the shelves in 2025.²

Are we entering a brave new robotic world? Will we soon be lounging around on deckchairs all day, being handed coconut water by a big mechanical hand? Can we say goodbye to cleaning our own homes, sending our own emails, doing our own laundry?

So say the optimists. The robotics industry attracts $13bn (£10.5bn) of investment per year around the world, and experts think it could represent a global revenue 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 It has become one of the most fast-paced and profitable areas of technology.

This is partly because it coincides with a problem that needs to be fixed. In many large developed economies, the labour force is growing at a sluggish pace. This means that businesses are keen to outsource labour to robots rather than relying on recruiting humans from a dwindling market.

Labour shortages will only be exacerbated by political trends, as the US and some European countries lock out mobile labour, promising a closed-border policy and even threatening mass deportations of immigrants.

For employers, turning to robots is a no-brainer. Automated workers do not demand a salary. They do not take time off for sickness, to go on holiday or to start a family. They do not ask for better working conditions, or go on strike.

Advocates insist that the idea is to create technology that helps people to do their jobs better, rather than replacing them - automated efficiency, with a human interface.

They say that automation is the key to increasing our wellbeing and liberating us from the grinding 40-hour minimum work week that many suffer through for decades of their lives.

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 mass displacement, with millions or even billions losing their jobs and livelihoods. How will they provide for themselves and their families?

And with increasing numbers of people in precariousUnpredictable; uncertain. work and on zero-hour contracts, many worry that human workers could be cut loose with no protections or security.

Workers have gone on strike 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 existential threat.

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

CES - The Consumer Electronics Show

Artificial Intelligence - Artificial intelligence, or "AI," is the ability for a computer to think and learn. With AI, computers can perform tasks that are typically done by people, including processing language, problem-solving, and learning.

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

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

Precarious - Unpredictable; uncertain.