Within a decade that figure will rise to 25 per cent, says the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Much of this growth will be led by South Korea, Germany, Japan and the United States.
The list of tasks expected to be wrested out of human hands is long.
Butchery is likely to be taken over by blade-wielding robots capable of judging the amount of fat and sinew to remove from a joint. Likewise the machining and assembling of car parts, such as batteries or gear wheels.
Elsewhere, a host of mundane activities such as burger-flipping will be performed by chefs powered by silicon - rather than potato - chips.
BCG partner Michael Zinser said: "For many manufacturers, the biggest reasons for not replacing workers with robots have been pure economics and technical limitations.
"But the price and performance of automation are improving rapidly. Within five to 10 years, the business case for robots in most industries will be compelling."
In some industries that point has been well passed. In car manufacturing, a spot welding robot costs US$8 ($10.75) an hour to operate compared with US$25 for a worker. In electronics assembly, a small robot costs US$4 an hour to do a job that a human must be paid US$24 to perform.
But the flipside to such glittering returns for efficiency and profitability is what happens to the flesh and blood, Mark I assembly devices.
A study by Oxford University in 2013 found that computerisation in all its forms would put 47 per cent of all American jobs at risk. When another think tank asked nearly 2,000 experts last year what sort of impact they believed automation and artificial intelligence (AI) would have on the jobs market, 48 per cent said it would eliminate many blue and white collar jobs, from assembly-line work to accountancy.
As Harvard academic Justin Reich, an expert on the effect of technology, put it: "Robots and AI will increasingly replace routine kinds of work - even the complex routines performed by artisans, factory workers, lawyers and accountants.
"I'm not sure that jobs will disappear altogether, though that seems possible. But the jobs that are left will be lower paying and less secure than those that exist now."
Others say such doom-and-gloom scenarios will not materialise.
The International Federation of Robotics, which represents manufacturers and technology users, says up to two million jobs will be created by 2020 through use of robots.
The optimistic argument is that automation produces devices that create new areas of human activity and frees up time to be devoted to lower-tech but higher-value pursuits such as artisan manufacturing.
With Google investing heavily in robotics and AI, Amazon preparing to use package-delivering drones and defence companies pouring resources into battlefield automatons, robots are here to stay - and humans will increasingly have to grapple with how they want them to behave.
Humanoid helpers: Androids in action
Bob the security guard
Developed by Birmingham University and security firm G4S, "Bob" patrols and compares stored images to see if items have been moved. He roams the university library and, among other duties, checks if fire doors are open.
Burger flipper
San Francisco-based Momentum Machines has built a robot that can cook about 360 hamburgers an hour. It can also slice tomatoes and pickles. The company's website boasts that the robot "does everything employees can do, except better".
Nao the bank clerk
Nao is a humanoid robot soon to be released in Japan's biggest bank. The robot is multi-lingual, can respond to human requests and can recognise individuals. It will soon be replacing cashiers at selected Tokyo branches.
Baxter
One of the most popular industrial robots, costing just US$25,000 ($33,525), Baxter can complete simple industrial jobs such as loading, unloading and sorting materials. Built-in sensors allow it to detect people nearby and adapt to his environment.
- Independent
