9 August 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal

Robotics and artificial intelligence could permeate industries such as customer services and maintenance over the next decade, according to research by the American Pew Research Centre in 2014. 

In the same year at at the Workplace Strategy Summit, Chris Kane, then CEO of BBC Commercial Projects, said: “As things like robotics take over, the FM industry will shrink”.  

This magazine’s editor remains more sceptical. He wrote in July that automation has been talked about since the 1950s and it is most likely to continue at a “gradual march” rather than a huge leap that would mean the sudden shrinkage of a whole industry. We ask you if you think the hype is true – is the introduction of robotics and automation increasing more than ever before and could they benefit or harm the industry? How? 

You can email any responses to: newsdesk@fm-world.co.uk. We want to have your answers back by Tuesday 30th August. Thank you in advance for your responses.