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PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
Nursing robots in healthcare: The new employee
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1 Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck,
Austria
2 Certified Court Interpretation, Anich Str. 29/16, Innsbruck,
Austria
AIH, 025370075 https://doi.org/10.36922/AIH025370075
Received: 8 September 2025 | Revised: 20 October 2025 | Accepted: 30 October 2025 | Published online: 24 November 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract
The development of robots incorporating artificial general intelligence has achieved rapid advancements, with tangible changes being observed on the labor market, such as in the healthcare industry. With the expansion of research targeted at robot development, it is anticipated that robots demonstrating artificial intelligence-associated cognitive properties that reflect individuality and distinctiveness will soon be entering the care system. These nursing robots take over some of the work traditionally done by humans in the elderly and nursing care system, encountering very vulnerable elderly individuals. Therefore, there is a need to reconsider and redefine the aspects of social values, data integrity, and the dignity of working with and on people when the nursing robots are taken into account. Their introduction presents opportunities for workforce redistribution and potential benefits for employees and underscores the urgent need for clear legal regulations. In this context, employing our knowledge in social science to foster constructive cooperation between humans and intelligent machines has become more important than ever.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
Digital health
Evidence
Healthcare coalitions
Human resources
Precarious work
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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