Section Article

Societal Acceptance of Automated Service Robots in India
Author(s): Prof. Nitya Khandekar

Abstract
Automated service robots are rapidly emerging as an essential element of India’s service delivery ecosystem driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence robotics engineering machine learning human–robot interaction research and Industry 4.0 digital transformation frameworks. From hospitality transportation retail healthcare banking smart governance agriculture and public services robots are increasingly entering environments traditionally occupied by human workers. As India transitions toward a digitally empowered high-efficiency experience-driven economy societal acceptance of automated service robots becomes a critical determinant of technology adoption cultural adaptation behavioural willingness and long-term sustainability of service automation. This paper provides an extensive and multidimensional examination of societal perceptions behavioural dispositions trust barriers cultural determinants and psychological factors influencing the acceptance of service robots across urban semi-urban and rural populations in India. The abstract synthesizes emerging patterns across human readiness social trust socio-technical ecosystems perceived usefulness emotional comfort task reliability privacy anxiety job displacement fears cultural familiarity digital literacy and demographic factors that shape adoption outcomes. The integration of automated robots in India operates within a unique socio-cultural paradigm characterized by high population density diversified economic strata varying levels of technological literacy deep-rooted social norms and evolving perceptions of modernity.