A Chinese tech firm is taking the next step in workplace automation as it introduces a robot as its new chief executive officer.

Metaverse company NetDragon Websoft announced that it is naming its AI-powered virtual humanoid robot "Ms Tang Yu" as its CEO.

As head of the $10bn firm, Ms Tang Yu will be responsible for all executive duties expected of human employees. This includes managing the company’s organisational and efficiency departments.

"We believe AI is the future of corporate management, and our appointment of Ms Tang Yu represents our commitment to truly embrace the use of AI to transform the way we operate our business, and ultimately drive our future strategic growth," NetDragon Chairman Dr Dejian Liu said.

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Robot boss

According to NetDragon, Ms Tang Yu will be given tasks traditionally assigned to regular employees, including those that require a human touch. The robot CEO will handle the company’s human resource management and talent development. Its goal will be to provide a healthy working environment for all of NetDragon’s workers.

Ms Tang Yu will also lead the streamlining of the company’s process flow and improvement of its quality of work and speed of execution. NetDragon also expects their new AI-powered chief to help them make crucial decisions regarding its day-to-day operations, as well as provide them with effective risk management.

"Looking forward, we will continue to expand on our algorithms behind Tang Yu to build an open, interactive and highly transparent management model as we gradually transform to a metaverse-based working community," Dr Liu said.

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Jack Ma’s prediction coming true?

Many observers believe NetDragon’s appointment of Ms Tang Yu to a CEO role is the company’s way of setting a new standard for automation in workplaces. However, this is not the first time that the concept of a robot CEOs made the news.

In 2017, the then-Alibaba chairman Jack Ma predicted that robots could soon replace humans as leaders of companies.

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"In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time Magazine as the best CEO," Ma said at an entrepreneurship conference in China.

The Alibaba founder warned that those who will be caught unprepared will have a hard time dealing with the massive changes that technology is set to bring to workplaces.

"In the next three decades, the world will experience far more pain than happiness," he said.

Ma pointed out that education systems should do their part in teaching children to be more creative and curious so that they will not be caught unprepared for the future.