78% of French people are afraid of being replaced one day by an A.I. or a robot. But fortunately, it will only be for the most unpleasant tasks for 63%.
Paris, June 21, 2021
Botnation, the French platform for creating scalable chatbots, surveyed 1,058 customer-facing professionals and 1,956 consumers to find out how they feel about new technologies. Paradoxically, the French think that robots will not replace humans but… are still afraid that this will happen!
Robots will replace the pros… but mostly on the unpleasant aspects!
With the advent of chatbots, many professionals and consumers are questioning their job and their relationship with these new technologies. More than 67% of professionals and 56% of consumers think that robots can replace a person in contact with customers. But in detail, the facts are more moderate. Indeed, only 8% of professionals and 5% of consumers declare that this replacement will take place in full. The majority of them therefore believe that only a part of this customer relationship will be carried out by robots: 59% for professionals and 51% for consumers.
Do you think that robots (chatbot for example), can replace a person in relation with customers?
| Answers | Professionals | Consumers |
| Yes in full | 8 % | 5 % |
| Yes, but only in part | 59 % | 51 % |
| No, not at all | 33 % | 44 % |
The same is true for artificial intelligence. More than 66% of professionals and 61% of consumers say that humans will be replaced by A.I. but only on the most unpleasant aspects of certain jobs.
Do you think that artificial intelligence will replace humans in customer relations?
| Answers | Professionals | Consumers |
| Yes in full | 5 % | 4 % |
| Yes, but only partly on the most unpleasant aspects | 66 % | 61 % |
| No, not at all | 29 % | 35 % |
Changes in progress
More in tune with the changes in their respective markets, 29% of professionals believe that it will take a few more years for these upheavals to become visible and operational. This is supported by 11% who have already made these changes. While 33% of consumers think it will take even longer.
You think these upheavals will happen:
| Answers | Professionals | Consumers |
| In several decades | 25 % | 33 % |
| Never | 15 % | 29 % |
| In a few years | 29 % | 21 % |
| It has already happened | 11 % | 8 % |
| I do not know | 20 % | 9 % |
An irrational fear?
Even if overall, the evolutions are slow and uncertain, more than 78% of French people are still afraid of being replaced by new technologies. In detail, 45% of professionals and 56% of consumers fear losing their job completely because of technological developments, and 27% and 29% respectively to a lesser extent.
In general, are you afraid that technology will replace you in your work?
| Answers | Professionals | Consumers |
| Yes, totally | 45 % | 56 % |
| Yes, a little | 27 % | 29 % |
| No, not at all | 28 % | 15 % |
“The human being is naturally conditioned to fear changes but also totally able to adapt to them. It is therefore important to prepare employees for the integration of new technologies such as AI and educate them on the steps or changes it implies for their jobs and the company’s organization.
It’s crucial to show your employees how chatbots will help them, by giving them examples of tasks and introducing them to a new, more interesting job. Robots take care of the most unpleasant aspects and therefore promise to improve the daily life of many French people.
Include employees in these processes, share successes and discuss improvements. The goal is to share the effort of this global change because employees are responsible for the success of a robot integration program. It is necessary to get the buy-in of its staff to assimilate that AI will not replace them. Problem solving still belongs to humans. Employees are responsible for the success of a robot integration program.
They must feel valued and understand their essential role in the company’s strategy. At Botnation, we create spaces to experiment with these technologies by easily developing new prototypes with no-code tools… like those we offer to professionals“commented Emmanuel FRANÇOISE, founder of Botnation.
* Methodology: survey conducted with 1,058 professionals in contact with customers and 1,956 consumers throughout France. Surveys conducted online, on the BuzzPress France proprietary panel, according to the quota method, during the period from June 1 to 14, 2021.
Distribution of the professional sectors concerned: Assistanat, Administration : 6% / Building and Public Works, Construction, Design Office : 6% / Commerce, Marketing, Sales : 18% / Consulting : 8% / General Management, Profit Center Management : 5% / Information Technology, Telecoms : 16% / Catering, Tourism, Hotel Industry, Leisure : 13% / Health, Social, Personal Services : 8% / Production, Maintenance: 1% / Environment, Planning: 1% / Distribution, Warehouse: 5% / Management, Finance, HR, Accounting, Auditing: 6% / Metallurgy, Mechanics, Aeronautics: 1% / Logistics, Purchasing, Stock, Transportation: 3%, Agri-Agro – Agriculture, Viticulture, Fishing: 1%.
All the information put forward by the respondents is declarative.
About BotNation
Founded in 2017 by Emmanuel FRANCOISE, Botnation is a chatbot creation platform based on a proprietary AI. Botnation offers a freemium, ergonomic and “nocode” offer including tutorials and free templates. The platform makes it easy to create chatbots for all websites, WordPress, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp.
The platform can be used live by companies, agencies and even students who want to discover the power of artificial intelligence developed by Botnation.
Botnation’s team is composed of 10 people divided between Paris and Rennes. The company already has several hundred customers, including large accounts such as Algeco, Cdiscount, Enedis, Keolis, Société Générale, Facebook and hundreds of SMEs.
In just a few years, Botnation has generated tens of millions of conversations and billions of messages exchanged.