Automation is poised to spark a “robot revolution” in the American economy that will see machines potentially replace humans in jobs ranging from factory work to the medical field, according to lawmakers and experts who met at a congressional hearing Thursday.

“[I]f the world’s best medical diagnostician is not today a piece of technology, it soon will be,” Andrew McAfee, co-director of MIT’s Center for Digital Business, predicted in his testimony before the Joint Economic Committee.