One in five employees think artificial intelligence (AI) would do a better job than their current human boss, according to a new survey.

The report, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Business Name Generator, surveyed over 2,000 employees across the UK and US to see how they felt about employee management and AI.

While over 40% of employees say they would be scared if their boss was replaced by AI, many had a more nuanced response to the proposition.

With 37% of respondents saying they have left a job in the past due to their manager, it is no surprise that some employees would be willing to try an AI alternative.

Respondents had several different reasons for supporting AI over a human boss – 33.33% in the UK said a robot boss would ensure there was no favouritism, and 30.45% said a robot would be better at making unbiased decisions, and 29.65% saying they would ensure there was no discrimination.

While an AI-driven manager may mean less interpersonal bias and favouritism, AI has been shown to be rife with discriminatory bias. In job recruitment, AI has been known to select candidates that are most similar to top executives.

If the recruitment process itself is bias, discriminatory, and maintains favouritism for certain characteristics, then these issues will not even enter the workplace.

Workers had other reasons, though, for supporting an AI boss. 24.68% of UK employees surveyed said that an AI boss would remove workplace drama, and make it a fairer place.

Interesting, only 18.61% said that an AI boss would make the workplace more productive and efficient, and only 16.82% said it would lessen employee stress.

Overall, one in six respondents (16%) in both the UK and the US said they would be ‘happy’ if their boss was replaced by an AI robot. In the UK, nearly 18% of men would be happy, whereas 14% of women said they would be happy with the outcome.

Breaking it down by age, nearly one in three respondents aged 18-24 said they would be happy with a robot boss. Only 12% of people over the age of 55 would be okay with the switch.

In the UK, arts and culture was the industry most happy to replace their boss with a robot (30%), despite being perceived as the most distant from the tech world.

Human resources (HR), was the next industry most interested in an AI boss, with 23% saying they would be happy for their boss to be replaced by a robot.

More tech-heavy industries were further down the list, with 19% of respondents in Manufacturing and Utilities as well as in Finance saying they would be happy with a robot replacement.

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17% of those in the healthcare industry said they would be happy with a robot boss.

Interestingly, AI seemed the appeal the most in less tech-heavy industries, and appealed not for it’s potential productivity benefits, but to mitigate the interpersonal challenges in a workplace.

In the UK, most issues with bosses tended to be on the interpersonal level – the number one issue UK employees had was a lack of appreciation (14%), followed by a lack of empathy (12.4%) and showing favouritism (12.2%).

Further, UK employees complained about a lack of clear expectations (12.1%), disorganisation (11.7%), micromanagement (11.5%) and unavailability to answer questions (11.4%).

These may not be solved by a robot boss, but the potential expectation may be removed if a job is managed by a robot rather than a person.