Analyse the impact of new age robotic systems on the economy, considering factors such as job displacement, cost savings and market competitiveness.

New age robotic systems have a significant impact on the economy in the areas of job displacement, cost savings and market competitiveness.

• Job displacement and changing skills: Robots can replace repetitive and routine tasks such as picking, sorting, packing, and assembly (e.g., warehouse and factory robots). This may reduce demand for some manual jobs, but it also creates new roles like robot operators, maintenance technicians, programmers, and supervisors. So, the economy sees a shift in skill requirements from manual work to technical and monitoring-based work.

• Cost savings for organisations: Robots can work continuously with high speed and accuracy, reducing errors, wastage, and delays. For example, warehouse robots speed up order handling, and healthcare/industrial robots support precise work. This improves efficiency and can lower long-term costs such as labour cost per unit, accident-related costs, and time losses.

• Improved market competitiveness: Companies using robots can produce faster, more reliably, and at larger scale, helping them offer better quality and quicker delivery. Sectors like logistics (warehouse robots, delivery robots, drones), manufacturing (automated systems), and healthcare (surgical/telepresence robots) can become more productive, which increases competitiveness in both national and global markets.

Overall, widespread adoption of these systems can increase productivity and efficiency in industries, but it also makes reskilling and upskilling important so workers can adapt to the new job roles created by automation.