Robots can do 74% of physical tasks, but adoption remains costly
Robots can already perform 74% of US physical job tasks, covering 34% of working hours, but businesses have little economic reason to deploy them yet: they are cost-competitive with human labor for only 0.3% of work. The study measures exposure by asking whether current autonomous machines can perform tasks in less controlled settings, then compares that ability with human labor costs. Even if robot prices keep falling at past rates, the cost-competitive share would take 40 years to reach 10%.