Nearly 68% of adults would prefer a robot to handle heavy lifting, 54% for carrying and delivering, and 52% for monitoring hazards, however just 12% would choose a robot for caregiving, according to Hexagon’s global Robot Generation study.
“People are telling us exactly where robots belong and where they don’t, and their instincts are remarkably consistent across markets,” says Burkhard Boeckem, CTO at Hexagon. “Industrial environments are where the tasks for robots are the most defined, the safety cases are mature, and governance is in public view. That is where people feel most comfortable working alongside humanoids, and it’s precisely where our technologies already operate. This data confirms that the path to adoption runs through industry, not around it.”
Key takeaways:
- Adoption is conditional, not universal, as half of adults also prefer robots for monitoring hazards (52%), cleaning shared spaces (50%), and information lookup (50%), but 86% say clear rules for what robots can and can’t do are essential.
- The next generation is already more comfortable with robots, and are 50% more likely than adults to see robots as “full colleagues” at work.
- But where a task demands empathy or accountability, both groups shift decisively to humans. The widest gap is in caregiving: 67% of children and 71% of adults want a human to care for the sick, elderly or children. Elsewhere, just 16% and 12%, respectively, would choose a robot, the lowest robot preference for any task tested.
- Adults prioritize tasks such as capturing measurements or doing simple research (53%), managing admin (38%), and ensuring workplace safety (34%). Children want assistants that help them understand school lessons (60%) and generate ideas (48%).
- Only 21% of adults think robots should be considered full colleagues, and just 14% would want them in charge, while children are 50% more likely to view robots as full colleagues, pointing to a generational shift already underway.
- Adults are most comfortable with robots helping in factories and warehouses (63%), well ahead of hospitals and clinics (45%), or classrooms (39%). This pattern holds across markets: in China, where 75% of adults have encountered robots in real life, 63% would be comfortable with a robot in the home. In contrast, just 32% in the UK, where exposure remains the lowest of any market surveyed.
- Preference also tilts toward machine-like robots (28%) over human-like (22%), suggesting that trust is built through function, not appearance. Yet adoption remains conditional: 86% of adults say clear rules for what robots can and can’t do are essential. Furthermore, concerns around security (51%), reliability (21%), and trust (26%) underline that governance must keep pace with deployment.
