Business
Top CEOs Predict AI Will Cut the Workweek to Three Days
By Jake Beardslee · October 10, 2025
Tech Leaders Envision AI-Powered Shift in Work Culture
Some of America’s most influential business leaders believe artificial intelligence will drastically reshape the traditional workweek. Ari Emanuel, former CEO of entertainment giant Endeavor, told the Financial Times that AI’s productivity gains could reduce the average workweek to just three days, saying the technology will allow people “more free time.” TheStandingDesk / Unsplash
Growing Optimism Among Industry Giants
Executives like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan have echoed similar predictions. Gates suggested during The Tonight Show that AI could bring “so much change” that people might “just work like two or three days a week.” Yuan expressed a comparable sentiment to The New York Times, asking, “If A.I. can make all of our lives better, why do we need to work for five days a week?” He predicted that “every company will support three days, four days a week,” freeing up employees’ time. Steve Johnson / Unsplash
Netherlands Outpaces U.S. With Europe’s Shortest Workweek
According to Eurostat data, employees in the Netherlands aged 20 to 64 worked an average of 32.1 hours per week in 2024—the shortest workweek in Europe. Austria, Germany, and Denmark followed closely behind, each averaging roughly 34 hours per week. chris robert / Unsplash
The U.S. Still Works Longer
Across the Atlantic, Americans continue to log far more time on the job. A 2024 Gallup poll found that full-time U.S. employees worked an average of 42.9 hours per week—down slightly from 44.1 hours in 2019 but still significantly higher than most of Europe. Jack Roberts / Unsplash
The Promise—and the Peril—of AI Efficiency
Emanuel acknowledged concerns that AI could lead to idleness but argued that humans, as social beings, will naturally seek new outlets. “They can’t just sit at home, so they’ll go to music, they’ll go to sports and they’ll go to my live events,” he said. Yet not everyone shares his optimism. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI startup Anthropic, warned in Axios that AI could erase half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, potentially driving unemployment to 10–20 percent. Nainoa Shizuru / Unsplash