Hello there, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

Today we're looking at the rise of the robots, what they'll do to our jobs,

and how we may wish to handle work in the years ahead.

Many of us think that the work that others do says something about them,

that work is not simply a source of income, but also of meaning and purpose. And so

the challenge of a world with less work isn't just the economic one, but also how do we share

out meaning and identity and purpose? An automated future and how to handle it. Business Daily from

the BBC. Now we have looked a few times on this show at the problems of automation.

How our jobs and livelihoods could soon be under threat.

Human-like robots can now do things we mere mortals used to do.

So we're going to introduce you to Pepper our four-foot-tall humanoid robot.

Which product are you interested in?

Tap one of the icons on the screen or ask me about it.

Are these robots coming for your job?

We've always had concern about technological unemployment and mechanization.

In terms of the effect on

unemployment, you get sort of short-term dislocations and gradually people I think generally have proved

to be adaptive. This is one of the first places in China where machines could replace workers

entirely over the next

few years. These are their plans for a fully automated warehouse. Even the vans would load

themselves and self-driving vehicles we know about. Some moments from previous BBC business programmes there.

Well, now a major new book has come out to reflect on our doubtful economic future in the age of the robot.

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