AI could enable at least 9 million workers in Great Britain to move to four-day week

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) could enable 9 million workers in Great Britain to move to a four-day, 32 hour working week according to a study by independent think tank Autonomy.

The report found that as a result of projected productivity gains from artificial intelligence, 8.8 million workers (28% of the workforce) could move to a four-day, 32 hour working week by 2033.

It also found that an even bigger number – 28 million workers (88% of the workforce) could have their working hours reduced by at least 10%.

The study, published alongside a similar study in the US, set out to understand the possibility of productivity enhancing AI being utilised to shorten the working week in Great Britain, whilst maintaining pay and performance.

Such a policy offers the possibility of avoiding mass unemployment, reducing widespread mental health illnesses as well as physical ailments associated with overwork and creating masses of free time for democracy, leisure consumption and social cohesion in general.

Local authorities with the highest proportion of workers that could work four-day weeks within the next decade include the City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Elmbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth, St Albans and Wokingham.

Nobel Prize winning economist Christopher Pissarides—a professor at the London School of Economics – said earlier this year that as a result of artificial intelligence: “we could move to a four-day week easily.”

Earlier this year, the world’s biggest ever four-day week pilot in the UK involving 61 companies and 2,900 workers concluded. At the end of the six-month trial, almost every company decided to continue with the four-day week working pattern.

Will Stronge, Director of Research at Autonomy, said:

“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.”