In what may inspire senior leaders to scamper to B-Schools for some leadership lessons, a new study has found out that a majority of employees have more trust in robots than their managers.

According to a new research conducted by Oracle and Future Workplace, AI has changed the relationship between people and technology at work and is reshaping the role of managers with regard to hiring, retaining and developing talent.

The study saw a participation of 8,370 employees, managers and HR leaders across 10 countries.

Here are some other interesting insights:

• AI is becoming more prominent with 50% of workers currently using some form of AI at work compared to only 32% last year. Workers in China (77%) and India (78%) have adopted AI over two times more than those in France (32%) and Japan (29%).
• The majority (65%) of workers are optimistic, excited and grateful about having robot co-workers and nearly a quarter report having a loving and gratifying relationship with AI at work.
• Workers in India (60%) and China (56%) are the most excited about AI, followed by the UAE (44%), Singapore (41%), Brazil (32%), Australia/New Zealand (26%), Japan (25%), US (22%), UK (20%) and France (8%).

 The increasing adoption of AI at work is having a significant impact on the way employees interact with their managers. As a result, the traditional role of HR teams and the manager is shifting.

• 64% of people would trust a robot more than their manager and half have turned to a robot instead of their manager for advice.
• Workers in India (89%) and China (88%) are more trusting of robots over their managers, followed by Singapore (83%), Brazil (78%), Japan (76%), UAE (74%), Australia/New Zealand (58%), US (57%), UK (54%) and France (56%).

• 82% of people think robots can do things better than their managers.
• When asked what robots can do better than their managers, survey respondents said robots are better at providing unbiased information (26%), maintaining work schedules (34%), problem solving (29%) and managing a budget (26%).
• When asked what managers can do better than robots, workers said the top three tasks were understanding their feelings (45%), coaching them (33%) and creating a work culture (29%)

Shaakun Khanna, Head of HCM Applications, Asia Pacific, Oracle, said in a statement, “With technology adding great value to all organizational functions, people are excited about increasingly leveraging technologies like AI in HR. The study shows that the equation between people and technology is being re-written and the organisations need to work closely with their HR teams to meet the changing expectations of people. The study also highlights another aspect that with technology taking care of transactional activities, leaders and managers need to bring more strategic value to management and use more of their soft skills with people. If managers want to survive the challenge of AI, they must embrace EI.”