Just like Bill Gates, Zoom’s CEO now says that AI could enable a 3-day workweek — at the cost of entry-level jobs

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As the year winds down, I always hesitate to talk to friends about how exhausted they are. It seems like everyone is complaining about working long hours – 40 hours a week – and having almost no time left to relax, spend time with loved ones, or just enjoy the outdoors.

A recent Microsoft report showed that many employees feel stuck in a never-ending workday. The study found that, on average, people start thinking about work as early as 6 AM, often while still in bed.

Despite the expectation of finishing work around 5 or 6 PM, many employees find themselves taking work home, leaving them with limited personal time. This pattern extends to the weekend, where Sunday often feels like another workday due to preparation for the week ahead and unfinished tasks.

Microsoft says adding AI to how people work can improve both their motivation and productivity, freeing them up to focus on bigger, more critical projects.

Whether other businesses will adopt this strategy is still uncertain, but companies like Salesforce are already heavily invested in it. Earlier this year, CEO Marc Benioff mentioned they were considering hiring fewer software engineers because AI assistants were significantly boosting productivity. He later shared that AI now handles as much as half of the company’s workload.

A 3-day workweek might be possible with AI, but its not that glamourous

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently suggested that widespread use of AI could lead to a four-day workweek for many people, according to Fortune. He believes AI will handle routine and repetitive jobs, freeing up employees to concentrate on more meaningful work.

This method isn’t without its downsides, and could lead to job losses. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs, potentially impacting Gen Z’s employment prospects.

Yuan isn’t the only one thinking this could happen. Last year, Bill Gates suggested that AI could lead to a shorter work week – just three days – by automating boring, time-consuming tasks, leaving people free to focus on more important work.

Earlier this year, a wealthy philanthropist predicted that AI could lead to a four-day workweek within the next decade.

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2025-09-19 15:09