Encounter a group of "people" who work overtime during the National Day holiday but do not claim overtime pay.

This National Day holiday, if you travel, you may come across some "staff members" that were rarely seen before.

They get no salary, have no National Day holiday off, and barely complain about overtime, because they are robots.

This year, robots are appearing in cultural and tourism scenarios more and more frequently.

Qiyun Mountain has put exoskeleton robots into use in its scenic area. When tourists wear them, they will feel as if someone is "pushing" them when climbing uphill, and the robots can also help cushion the pressure on their knees when going downhill; 20 sets of such devices have been officially put into use during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

Beijing Yizhuang has even turned robots into a tourism project. The Robot Mall is equipped with industrial robots, humanoid robots, robot dogs, robot dance troupes, and even has a dedicated industrial tourism route centered on robots, autonomous driving and commercial aerospace.

In the newly opened robot experience space in Jiading, Shanghai this year, more than 100 enterprises in the robot industry chain have gathered. Tourists can play chess with robots, play football, and operate drones, receiving more than 500 tourists on average every day.

It is even the same abroad. In the labor-saving cases of hotels sorted out by the Japan Tourism Agency, self-check-in machines, cleaning robots, food delivery robots and AI concierges have become a whole category of solutions; 24 autonomous cleaning robots have been working on a regular basis at Heathrow Airport in the UK this year.

So this National Day holiday, what you see may not just be a "fun robot".

What you see is very likely a preview of the future world of work.

What is really worth being alert to has never been "the arrival of robots"

When every round of technological change first emerges, the favorite question people ask is:

"How many people will it replace?"

But later it will be found that this question is only half correct.

After the advent of automobiles, the carriage drivers were certainly affected, but at the same time, a large number of new jobs emerged in automobile manufacturing, maintenance, highway construction, gas stations, logistics, automobile sales, insurance, and even the entire urban life formed around automobiles later.

The same is true for smartphones. They eliminated part of the demand for cameras, maps and MP3 players, but created countless careers that we take for granted today, such as the mobile internet, short videos, food delivery, online ride-hailing, and e-commerce operations.

The real big change has never been that a certain technology replaces several positions.

Instead, it is:

After a new technology is applied in more and more industries, the whole society will re-price "ability".

What robots are going through now may be exactly this stage.

In the past, when people mentioned robots, the first reaction of many people was still robotic arms, factories and engineers.

But now they start to climb mountains, deliver food, provide tour guide services, clean airports, and enter hotels, shopping malls and museums.

This means a very important turning point: robots are transforming from an "industry" to a "basic capability".

Just like 20 years ago, you wouldn't think that "the internet" is only a matter for programmers.

In the future, "robots" will not only be a matter for robotics engineers either.

The first thing that changes may not be the positions, but the "tasks" within the positions

This is actually particularly important for ordinary job seekers, because the robot era will not simply divide careers into "people in the robot industry" and "other people".

What really happens is more likely that every industry will gradually develop a part of "robot-related work".

For example, in the past, a scenic spot recruiting operation staff might require you to be good at organizing activities, scheduling shifts and providing tourist services.

In the future, it may need a person who not only understands tourist experience, but also knows where robots should be placed, how to operate them, who to contact when problems occur, what scenarios are worthy of automation, and what scenarios must retain real human staff.

The same is true for hotels. After robots are responsible for delivering towels, front desk positions will not necessarily disappear.

However, the value of people who can only mechanically handle check-in procedures may decrease, while those who can solve complex complaints, design service processes, manage smart devices and analyze customer needs will become more important instead.

A 2025 study on Thai tourism enterprises found that with the increase in the adoption of service robots, low-skilled and repetitive positions face a higher risk of being replaced; the importance of digital capabilities, customer service capabilities and the ability of human-technology collaboration is on the rise.

This may be the real change that robots bring to the workplace. It does not take away a whole career all at once, but takes away the most standardized parts of the career little by little.

The remaining work will start to be revalued at a higher price.

What ordinary people should really focus on is "the people beside the robots"

So if you are not an algorithm engineer and cannot do mechanical design, there is actually no need to feel that this matter has nothing to do with you.

In the next few years, what may increase in large numbers is not only the people who manufacture robots.

There is also a group of people who make robots truly usable.

Robot training, testing and commissioning;

On-site operation and equipment maintenance;

Scenario solution design and product manager;

Cultural and tourism planning, digital hotel operation;

Robot content operation and experience design;

Even positions that specifically study "how humans and robots work together"...

They all have a common feature: they are neither purely technical nor purely business-oriented, but stand in the middle, and such talents may become more and more valuable.

Because making a walking robot in the laboratory is one thing, but making it work normally in a scenic spot during the National Day holiday, facing the elderly, children, steps, crowds, heavy rain, complaints and sudden power outages, is completely another thing.

After a technology truly enters the society, what is most scarce is often not just "the people who invented it", but the people who translate the technology into real scenarios.

So you can observe one thing conveniently this National Day holiday: when you go to scenic spots, airports, hotels and shopping malls, if you come across robots, you might as well not just shoot a video to post on your social media moments.

Take a closer look at the people next to it.

Who is debugging it?

Who is managing it?

Who is explaining it to tourists?

Who is responsible for handling the problems it cannot solve?

Who designed a robot into a service that people are really willing to pay for?

These positions may be inconspicuous today, but many new careers emerge in this way at the very beginning.

They will not suddenly appear on the front page of recruitment websites one day.

Instead, they will scatter around a new industry first, and only when more and more companies start to replicate them, will they suddenly become a huge job market.

Career opportunities often emerge earlier than the official names of careers.

So if you have to say what the relationship between robots and ordinary job seekers is this National Day holiday, I think it is not "robots are coming to take your jobs".

Instead, you'd better start thinking about how your major in the future can work with robots.

Because in every technological revolution, the people who really get the dividends are often not just the people who first invented the machines.

There are also the people who first understand exactly what this machine can be used for.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Liepin" (ID: liepinwang), the author is Haoduoyu, and it is published with authorization from 36Kr.