Will AI lead to a four-day workweek, reduce office hours?

These days, everyone seems to be afraid of Artificial Intelligence. From Joe Biden freaking out after seeing the latest Mission Impossible movie to a faction of the OpenAI board concerned about putting humanity in danger and people in general worrying that their jobs could soon be obsolete. But others think AI will be of help to humanity. Like this new report which says that AI could soon make a four-day workweek possible – and for no decrease in pay. Let’s take a closer look: What does the report say? The study was published on Monday by the Autonomy campaign group by Luiz Garcia, Lukas Kikuchi and Will Stronge. The study, entitled GPT-4 (Day Week): Great Britain Edition, looks at the impact AI – that is large language models (LLMs) –could have on lives and livelihoods in the United Kingdom. As per Computer Weekly, the paper says AI, if ‘used properly’, could allow nearly 9 million people in the UK to enjoy a four-day workweek by 2033.

Meanwhile, another 28 million could find their work hours decreased by 10 per cent by the same period.

The nine million people comprise around 28 per cent of the UK’s labour force, while the 28 million account for around 88 per cent of workers. As per The Independent, the study used data about the population and workforce as well as an artificial intelligence exposure index – which examines how different jobs would be affected by AI – and a prediction about productivity. As per Euro News, Autonomy based its predictions on the 1.5 per cent annual productivity benefit from AI given recently by Goldman Sachs. It also used information from  the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET). It simulated two situations:

• AI reducing working hours by 20 per cent without affecting workers’ pay
• Examining the number of workers that AI could increase the productivity of while maintaining their wages and reducing their workweek by 10 per cent.

Will Stronge, director of Research at Autonomy, said on its website, “Our research offers a fresh perspective in debates around how AI can be utilised for good. A shorter working week is the most tangible way of ensuring that AI delivers benefits to workers as well as companies. If AI is to be implemented fairly across the economy, it should usher in a new era of four-day working weeks for all.” The study suggested four-day workweeks could be implemented in the following places by 2023:

• London
• Wokingham
• Elmbridge
• Wandsworth
• St Albans
• Westminster

London alone would see 89 per cent of its labour witness a 10 per cent decrease in working hours. Thirty-three per cent of workers – 1.5 million by 2033 – could find themselves working for 20 per cent less time thanks to AI increasing productivity by 20 per cent.

As per The Independent, this is due to London and its surrounding areas having a high number of white-collar jobs.

As per The Independent, the jobs most likely to see a decrease in working days and working hours are lawyers, financial managers, customer service representatives, office and general clerks, accountants and auditors, investment fund managers, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, management analysts, market research analysts and marketing specialists. [caption id=“attachment_12976792” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The new report says that AI could soon make a four-day workweek possible – and for no decrease in pay.[/caption] Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services and travel, bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, general and operations managers, search marketing strategists, treasurers and controllers, receptionists and information clerks, human resources specialists, as well as primary school teachers, except special education, and secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education also make the cut. Will Stronge, director of Research at Autonomy, said on its website, “Our research offers a fresh perspective in debates around how AI can be utilised for good. A shorter working week is the most tangible way of ensuring that AI delivers benefits to workers as well as companies. If AI is to be implemented fairly across the economy, it should usher in a new era of four-day working weeks for all.” “Such a policy offers the possibility of avoiding mass unemployment (and all the social and political effects of this), reducing widespread mental health illnesses as well as physical ailments associated with overwork and creating significant additional free time for democracy, leisure consumption and social cohesion in general,” the study said. “In the case of the UK – where work-related stress, anxiety and depression constitute one of the most significant labour market issues today – these wellbeing factors cannot be emphasised enough when it comes to the productivity question. Thus, we can expect a great deal of extra productivity-enhancing side effects of the shorter work week, outside of the AI-augmentations we have modelled.” “The report thus recommends that public and private sector employers take advantage of this significant opportunity, to become world leaders in the take up of workplace AI as well as improve the lives of well over nearly thirty million people,” the study concluded. As per The Guardian, Autonomy did a similar study in the US.

That research concluded that around 35 million Americans could also enjoy a four-day week by 2033.

It stated that around 128 million workers, 71 per cent of the workforce, could see their working hours decrease 10 per cent. In Massachusetts, Utah and Washington, at least a fourth of workers could have four-day weeks. The newspaper quoted Stronge as saying, “Too many studies of AI, large language models, and so on, solely focus on either profitability or a jobs apocalypse. This study tries to show that when the technology is deployed to its full potential, but the purpose of the technology is shifted, it can not only improve work practices, but also improve work-life balance.” “What I think would be really impressive would be a robust AI industrial strategy, with automation hubs where trade unions, industry and experts in this tech get together to say: ‘We’re going to boost productivity, and this is also going to be something which delivers for the workers,’” Stronge added. However, sceptics abound. As per Computer Weekly, the Ada Lovelace Institute in October noted that the benefits of LLMs were “unproven and remain speculative.” It also highlighted the dangers around issues plaguing AI such as prejudice and racism and data leaks. It also noted that the public sector would like adopt LLMs simply because they are new instead of being the answer to humanity’s problems. With inputs from agencies