Fears that robots are coming for all our jobs are overdone, and the automation of the workplace will take far longer than some are predicting to arrive.

That’s according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which on Tuesday published a report finding that, even as automation becomes more common, humans will still be needed to work alongside new technologies.

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“While much of the current debate about automation has focused on the potential for mass unemployment, predicated on a surplus of human labor, the world’s economy will actually need every erg of human labor working, in addition to the robots, to overcome demographic aging trends in both developed and developing economies,” the report found.

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McKinsey analyzed 2,000 work activities across 800 occupations and found that just 5% of occupations are likely to be become fully automated based on currently demonstrated technologies. However, individual activities in almost every job can be partially automated. Adapting current technologies could allow half of all activities that people are paid for to be automated, equal to almost $16 trillion in wages.

The activities that are most easily automated are physical ones that are predictable and take place in very structured environments, such as manufacturing, as well as data collection and processing. In the U.S. these currently represent 51% of activities in the economy, and account for almost $2.7 trillion wages.

Middle-skill and high-paying jobs also have some automation potential, the report found.

“As processes are transformed by the automation of individual activities, people will perform activities that complement the work that machines do, and vice versa,” said the report.

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The good news is that automation could raise productivity growth, which would be a boon at a time when productivity rates have been falling. McKinsey estimates it could boost productivity growth globally by 0.8% to 1.4% annually. That compares with the 0.3% productivity boost afforded by the creation of the steam engine in the period from 1850 to 1910.

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“It is of a similar order of magnitude to the long-term technology-enabled shifts away from agriculture in developed countries’ workforces in the 20th century,” said the report. “Those shifts did not result in long-term mass unemployment, because they were accompanied by the creation of new types of work.”

McKinsey is expecting the next phase the shift toward automation to require humans, as the productivity gains will only come about if people work alongside machines.

“Our productivity estimates assume that people displaced by automation will find other employment,” said the report. “Many workers will have to change, and we expect business processes to be transformed.”

Overall, McKinsey is expecting automation to take years to play out, although the pace of change and the impact on workers will vary across sectors and occupations. The firm is expecting roughly half of today’s work activities to be automated by 2055, although that could happen 20 years earlier or later, depending on factors including the economy.

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These include technical feasibility, since technology must be invented and integrated into processes, at a cost that makes economic sense. Labor-market dynamics are important, as is the issue of social and regulatory approval, even when automation makes sound economic sense.

“As processes are transformed by the automation of individual activities, people will perform activities that are complementary to the work that machines do (and vice versa),” said the report. “These shifts will change the organization of companies, the structure and bases of competition of industries, and business models.”

The ROBO Global Robotics exchange-traded fund ROBO, -0.04% has gained 38% in the last 12 months, outperforming the S&P 500 SPX, -1.11% , which is up 20.6%. The Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF BOTZ, -0.68% , which was launched in September, has gained 4.6% in the last month.

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