Concerning robots, I can answer that question. This time, we have cheap sensors and connectivity, powerful processors, and machine learning.
It's early, but it's a sea change. Since the beginning, robots have been instructed what to do. Now, increasingly, they can decide what to do. They can react to the environment. Recover from failure. Handle variance.
Most of the focus has been on autonomous driving, but the same sensors and algorithms are applicable to so many varied tasks that have traditional been unapproachable by machines. (The moment this technology enables a laundry folding robot, I'm buying it, not matter what it costs.)
And it's not just manual labor but knowledge work as well. We laugh at strange errors from Siri and Google Now, but I have also started to notice that more and more of my calls don't involve a phone tree and don't have to get escalated to a human.