Researchers predict that 39% of the time spent cleaning up after oneself and caring for family members will be done by robots in the next decade. Caring for the young or elderly would be least likely to be impacted by AI, and grocery shopping would likely see the most automation, according to experts. “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,” explained Dr. Lulu Shi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. On the other hand, researchers add that technology was expected to shorten our time spent shopping for food by 60%.

However, predictions that robots will relieve us of domestic duties “in the next 10 years” have a lengthy history, so there are some doubts. According to associate professor Ekaterina Hertog, there has long been talk about self-driving cars taking the place of taxis on the road. But we have not exactly been able to make robots work efficiently or make self-driving automobiles reliable in the unpredictable environment of the streets. More studies show that domestic automation could cut down on the time spent on unpaid household chores. But the cost of the technology might be high. If systems to assist with housework are only affordable to a section of society, there will be a growth in time inequality.