According to a report by the World Economic Forum, advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to displace 75 million jobs, but also create another 58 million within the next five years. Furthermore, the report outlined that machines are expected to perform about 42% of all current tasks by the year 2022, resulting in exponential growth that could benefit investments in robotics and AI like the Robotics & AI Bull 3X ETF (NYSEArca: UBOT).
UBOT seeks daily investment results equal to 300% of the daily performance of the Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index. The fund invests in securities of the index, ETFs that track the index and other financial instruments that provide daily leveraged exposure to the index or ETFs that track the index, which is designed to provide exposure to companies in developed markets that expect to benefit from the adoption and utilization of robotics and/or AI.
UBOT seeks companies that have a minimum market capitalization of $100 million and a minimum average daily turnover for the last 6 months greater than, or equal to, $2 million in order to be eligible for inclusion in the underlying Index. Some of the index’s current holdings include Intuitive Surgical, NVIDIA, Keyence, Yaskawa Electric, and Omron.
“Robotic technology is set to be adopted by 37% to 23% of the companies surveyed for this report, depending on industry,” the report noted. “Companies across all sectors are most likely to adopt the use of stationary robots, in contrast to humanoid, aerial or underwater robots. However, leaders in the Oil & Gas industry report the same level of demand for stationary and aerial and underwater robots, while employers in the Financial Services & Investors industry are most likely to signal the planned adoption of humanoid robots in the period up to 2022.”
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Robotics and AI have been a hot button topic, particularly when it comes to replacing humans as companies in various sectors look to become more efficient. With the advent of robotics and AI, more companies may be willing to adopt these technologies as they become more advanced, lessening the need for human interaction or labor in some instances.
“While estimated use cases for humanoid robots appear to remain somewhat more limited over the 2018–2022 period under consideration in this report, collectively, a broader range of recent robotics technologies at or near commercialization—including stationary robots, non-humanoid land robots and fully automated aerial drones, in addition to machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence—are attracting significant business interest in adoption,” the report said.
While the displacement of jobs sparks a debate, company executives willing to take on robotics and AI technology are arguing that it will also create jobs. Either way, robotics/AI-focused funds like UBOT could stand to benefit as the technology becomes more widely embraced by the business community.
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