Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Robots and the Skills Premium

Under the background of rapid development of artificial intelligence and widespread application of industrial robots, its impact on skill premium has attracted much attention. To explain the influence effect of artificial intelligence and industrial robot applications on skill premium, a three-layer nested CES production function including artificial intelligence and industrial robots was constructed, and the mechanism of its effect on skill premium was theoretically derived. Based on this theoretical model, numerical simulation analysis is carried out. The results show that when different proportional relationships between the application level of artificial intelligence and that of industrial robots are set, the skill premium shows a significant downward trend with the improvement of the application level of artificial intelligence. Further analysis reveals that the improvement in the application level of artificial intelligence has a direct inhibitory effect on the wages of highly skilled labor, while the impact effect of industrial robots is relatively limited. The negative impact of industrial robot applications on the wages of low-skilled labor is more significant, while the influence of artificial intelligence is not obvious. From the perspective of changes in skill premium, the application of artificial intelligence has a direct effect of reducing skill premium, while the application of industrial robots shows a trend of increasing skill premium. However, when the application levels of both are in a relatively high range, the interaction between artificial intelligence and industrial robots will weaken the positive effect of industrial robots, forming a synergistic mechanism that reduces skill premium. The research results are conducive to a deeper understanding of the complex impact of artificial intelligence and industrial robots on skill premiums, providing a theoretical basis for policy-making to achieve a more reasonable income distribution.