We reassess the relationship between robotization and the growth in productivity in the light of new data and methods. We discover that the effect of robot density in the growth productivity substantially decreased in the post-2008 crisis period. Moreover, in this more recent period, the less strong positive effect of robot density in the growth of productivity is mostly derived from negative effect of hours worked in productivity, showing that robots lost part of their capacity to increase productivity through value-added. By means of quantile regression, we also learn that the effect of robots on labor productivity is stronger for low productivity sectors and that in the most recent period, the effect of robotization in all sectors, felt significantly throughout the distribution, with special emphasis in the
most productive sectors. This highlights one of the possible sources of the secular stagnation in the era of robotization and artificial intelligence technologies.
