I simply do not understand how massively expensive AI and robotics are expected to be more cost effective than humans.

Can someone help me understand this? I mean, how on earth are these companies who are planning to replace us all with beep boops expecting these unimaginably high expense technologies to be better for their bottom line than just paying us low wage unwashed masses? I mean, some dude (respectfully, I use that term genderlessly) here just posted about min wage in their area being $7.25! You are not getting a robot or AI that costs less annualized. Even adding in annual benefits - that is a steal compared to data centers and complex robots who will be absurdly expensive to fix when they break.