A survey of 9,000 adults and 9,000 children aged 8–18 across nine countries finds consistent public support for robots in industrial settings and consistent resistance to robots in care roles. Hexagon, the measurement and automation technology company, commissioned the research as the second wave of its Robot Generation study, with fieldwork carried out between October and November 2025.
Asked whether they would prefer a human or a robot for specific workplace tasks, 68% of adult respondents chose robots for heavy lifting, 54% for carrying and delivering, and 52% for monitoring hazards. Factories and warehouses were the most accepted environment: 63% of adults said they would be comfortable with robots there. Hospitals and clinics scored 45% comfort, classrooms 39%.
The inverse pattern held sharply for care tasks. Just 12% of adults would choose a robot for caregiving — the lowest robot preference for any task tested. Burkhard Boeckem, CTO at Hexagon, drew out the strategic conclusion: “People are telling us exactly where robots belong and where they don’t, and their instincts are remarkably consistent across markets. 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.”
The governance question sits at the centre of the findings. Eighty-six per cent of adults said clear rules for what robots can and cannot do are essential. Security (51%), trust (26%) and reliability (21%) were the top cited concerns.
The generational gap is striking. Children are 50% more likely than adults to see robots as full colleagues. Among adults, 40% described robot colleagues as exciting while 38% described them as frightening — suggesting the two responses are not mutually exclusive.
Dr Jim Everett, Associate Professor in Moral Psychology, noted the care framing matters: “There’s real potential for robots in areas like elderly care or classrooms, but as assistive devices, not as replacements for that essential human role.”
The study covered the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil and India. Exposure to robots in real life varied sharply: in China, 75% of adults reported encountering robots, versus 32% in the UK, which recorded the lowest exposure of any market surveyed. The research found anxiety highest where robots are least visible, which suggests the adoption curve in the UK will be slower than in markets where robots have already entered daily environments.
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