Sorry, but there's ALWAYS plenty of action in the markets, you just have to go looking for it.
As for robots and the like, they might be a factor if you're dicking around for ticks here and there, but not if you trade say the 60m chart and upwards.
Look at some of the big time stocks this year, AAPL, AMZN, most of the Dow 30, looks like pretty good moves to get your teeth into.
Many of the FX crosses have had good moves, and if some of the crosses haven't then drop down to the 60m, good moves to be had and if you're big, size can be moved.
Same with commodities, plenty of nice moves across the board.
As for robots taking over the game, not a chance because HUMANS and their EMOTIONS are the drivingforce behind price moves and I don't think we're going to become extinct anytime soon. Robots might take over the world however if you like watching crappy Hollywood movies.
Recession in price movement, don't make me laugh. There's NEVER a recession of movement in the markets if you open your eyes.
PS. Want guaranteed movement, use a stock analyser to tell you every stock (over say $1billion in cap or whatever) that's making either new yearly highs or lows, then focus there, something's is up with those stocks so they won't stay at those prices for long. Or, if you want guaranteed movement look at the mining shares, they are ALWAYS moving and often bigtim, 20%-50% up/down in a month is almost a given.