Khaberni - A former executive at Citibank warned on Monday that the number of AI-powered robots will exceed the human workforce within a few decades, as companies increasingly rely on AI agents and continue to cut costs.
Rob Garlick, the former head of innovation, technology, and the future of work at Citibank's Citigroup Global Insights unit, told "Squawk Box Europe" on CNBC that as leaders continue to prioritize profitability, human workers will fall behind.
Garlick added in his speech: "We have an economic and business leadership system that celebrates profitability," according to a CNBC report.
He added: "When you combine profitability with technological advancement, we're looking at a commercial shift in history, where AI will be able to do more and more, better and better, cheaper and cheaper, and will be able to replace humans."
Garlick explained that his earlier research at "Citibank" showed that the number of AI robots would skyrocket as a result of these business decisions.
He added: "In the next two decades, we will move to having a number of mobile robots that exceeds the human workforce, then add the agents... and it will explode."
According to a Citibank report for 2024, prepared by Garlick, the number of AI-supported robots, ranging from humanoid robots to domestic robots and autonomous vehicles, is expected to reach 1.3 billion by 2035.
According to forecasts, the number of these robots will rapidly increase to more than 4 billion by 2050.
The "Citibank" report calculated the time required to recover the value of a robot through the money saved by replacing the human worker; for example, a $15,000 robot would pay for itself within 3.8 weeks compared to a human worker paid $41 an hour, or within 21.6 weeks compared to a human worker paid $7.25 an hour.
Meanwhile, a robot costing $35,000 will have its value recovered in 8.9 weeks for a human job costing $41 an hour.
Garlick, for "CNBC", citing a number from his book "AI – Anarchy or Abundance? Why the Future of Work Needs Pro-Human Leaders": "You can actually buy a humanoid robot today, which would give you a payback (on what you paid) in less than 10 weeks compared to human workers."
At the same time, Bob Sternfels, the Global Managing Partner at McKinsey, in an interview with the Harvard Business Review, noted that the company currently employs 20,000 AI agents alongside 40,000 employees.
A year ago, the company only had 3,000 agents, and Sternfels predicts that in 18 months from now, there will be an equal number of employees and agents.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, shared similar views at the main conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, stating that AI will most likely surpass human intelligence by the end of this year.
