JPMorgan CEO says AI could lead to 3.5-day work week but doesn’t explain how

JPMorgan Chase CEO and chair, Jamie Dimon, has said that AI could make a 3.5 day work week a reality for employees.

Dimon made the statements in an interview with Bloomberg TV earlier this week, saying that AI was already being used by thousands at JPMorgan Chase and that it added “huge value for the company”.

Dimon praises the possibilities of AI in the interview, saying that it’s important for people to realise that AI is real.

“It’s a living, breathing thing,” Dimon said.

Dimon also touched on the potential job losses presented by AI.

“People need to take a deep breath, technology has always replaced jobs,” Dimon added.

“Your children could live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology, and literally they’ll probably be working three-and-a-half days a week.”

Dimon also spoke about the biggest danger being AI being used by bad people to do bad things and how there needs to be legal “guardrails” around it, which is currently tricky because it’s so new.

Our take

The four-day work week is a concept that is increasingly being floated (and experimented with), especially as employees have begun to value flexible working arrangements that offer better work-life balance. Some see the value in it, while others say it could do more harm than good and could even result in increased prices and taxes.

A three-and-a-half day work week courtesy of AI is a new one though — one that Jamie Dimon doesn’t actually explain.

Dimon doesn’t offer an argument as to how AI could result in a 3.5-day work week… unless we’re going to count those job losses he admitted to.

He didn’t even offer the consistent argument that most big tech companies do when asked about AI job loss — that utilising AI allows employees to focus on less mundane tasks.

I’d love to know what he actually meant by AI being utilised to make a 3.5-day work week a reality without reducing wages or enacting significant job loss. Surely I can’t be the only one drawing a line between his two comments.

Want more AI analysis? Check out our new weekly AI column: Neural Notes.