Almost 40% of time spent on chores could be automated within 10 years, study finds

Eleanor Noyce
Wed, 22 February 2023

A conceptual image of a generic, blue and white robot holding a vacuum cleaner doing household cleaning chores in bedroom, viewed from a low angle through an open doorway (Getty Images)

39% of time spent on chores – or four out of 10 hours - could be automated within 10 years, a new study has found.

Amongst the household tasks analysed, time dedicated to grocery shopping was listed as the most automatable, with ironing, washing up and cooking also featuring.

The study, conducted by the University of Oxford and Japan’s Ochanomizu University, further found that 28% of care work is predicted to be automated in the future. It estimates that time spent in this area could fall by almost 60%, with an increasing proportion of time freed up for leisure activities.

However, the research finds that childcare would only reduce by 21%. Past findings suggest that working-age people in the UK, on the whole, spend nearly 50% of their time on unpaid domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning and care.

Meanwhile, experts suggest that working-age men dedicate around half as much time on unpaid domestic work than their female counterparts, suggesting that these not-so-distant household automations could benefit women significantly.

Dr Lulu Shi, a postdoctoral researcher with the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “Our research suggests, on average, around 39% of our time spent on domestic work can be automated in the next 10 years.

“The degree of automation varies substantially across different types of work. However, only 28% of care work, including activities such as teaching your child, accompanying your child, or taking care of an older family member, is predicted to be automated.

“Yet 44% of housework, including cooking, cleaning, and shopping, are expected to be automatable.”

Elsewhere, the study notes differences in the expectations of domestic labour between male and female experts, referencing varying life experiences.

“We found male and female experts had different expectations about automation of domestic work, potentially reflecting the differences in their lived experiences with technology as well as their involvement in housework and care work”, said Ekaterina Hertog, associate professor in AI and Society, Oxford Internet Institute and Ethics in AI Institute.

The study also finds that the general level of optimism with regard to domestic automation varies by country, with UK-based experts believing that it could reduce domestic work time by 42%.

Amongst Japanese respondents, the figure was 36%, with these conclusions attributed towards a belief that technology generally equates to labour replacement in the UK. In Japan, new smart technologies are expected to work alongside humans rather than act as their replacements.

The study, published in Plos One, involved 29 male and female AI experts from the UK and 36 experts from Japan, asked to estimate the degree to which 17 household and care tasks might be impacted by automation over the coming decade.