Technology is dramatically changing many aspects of our lives — including how we work. Many organizations and industries are looking to automate tasks or entire positions, which can make technology seem threatening for workers. A new report from WorkMarket looks at different attitudes toward automation and examines how this trend could change the business world.

For one thing, there's a notable difference between employers and employees when it comes to views on automation. More than half of business leaders (52%) are interested in automating some part of their workforce, while one-third of employees described themselves as indifferent.

IT is one of the areas where automation is likely to have the biggest impact. Almost half of business leaders (43%) and nearly a third of employees (29%) cited IT and technology issues as the tasks that most often distract them from their work. After IT/technology, the tasks listed as keeping employees from focusing on more important aspects of their job include scheduling meetings, expense management, assigning work to eternal contributors, processing raw data, time entry, and billing/accounting tasks. The report found that these types of tasks are also often easily automated, and have the potential to give people more time back in their work day.