Examining data from firms in the Republic of Korea, this paper finds that artificial intelligence (AI) and robots differ in their impacts on employment and labor productivity.
It finds that AI has a more positive overall impact on labor market outcomes. While both adopting AI and adopting robots increase employment, only adopting AI improves labor productivity. However, those productivity gains are associated with a decrease in the labor share of income. In addition, there is no evidence that firms adopting both robots and AI improve their labor productivity, potentially reflecting a lack of synergy.