Back in the 90s, I used Cadstar auto router software for PCB layout. Cadstar is not very different to your example of surgery but it is not robotic. A fair degree of human input is still required to finish the work, same way one uses an in car satnav. What would be a surgeon robot is the one that accesses the MRI scan of your friend's prostate then decides a treatment plan all by itself without the need for a human surgeon, anaesthetist, oncologist etc.
I also have had familiarity with autorouting software, I spent a few years evaluating these for our students of electronics. My point to them was that these tools are for computer assisted engineering not automated engineering. If your familiarity is mid 90s, let me assure you there have been significant advances Restricting discussion to only PCB production .. mid 90s would have had multilayer routing. Later versions would have recursive autoplacing, and reiterative routing with targets for path length minimisation , via minimisation etc etc. It would not be feasible to design 14 layer boards without these tools.... Other tools in the suites would generate bills of materials, CNC files for the component placement machines, the solder masks , the temperature profiles for the ovens, and probe data for ATE testing post production.
Again Don't be too sure that medical diagnosis and treatment is not being automated,. Things happen in stages and then the islands of automation start getting linked together.
I worked some 40 years ago with the then world leader in automated haemotology, machines which could count blood cells and generate calculations some of which would diagnose certain cancers, . A colleague of mine was instrumental in the design of the portable Defib machines. .. which basically analyses the ECG, and diagnostic routines then decide if and when to administer shocks accross the heart.
The prostate peeling robot is, I think aligned to the appropriate place, by a surgeon and then does the cutting itself.. I am not sure what level of human guidance is used.
IBM have a major division formed in medical diagnosis.. called appropriately Dr Watson.
My major point though is that we are inundated with robots .. machines which do repetitive tasks for us, ... some are so ubiquitous and so embedded in our infrastructure that they are not seen as machines at all... The flush toilet, the electric lift, down to .. Nespresso machines, where all the work of grinding beans, boiling water ensuring correct temperature etc etc have been automated away.
So doing a building to centimetres precision is no difficulty....
