JP Morgan CEO predicts 3.5 day work weeks for future generations, thanks to AI: Living the dream?
JP Morgan Chase & Co CEO sure knows how to grab attention! A 3.5-day work week will have every eyeball swivel up from their screens after all
'I love my job' is a reality very few people get to live on the daily. And even if you do, you will hit a plateau when you realise, a job is just a job.
Not to say you won't rise from it, but for the most part, work-life balance is such a sought after evaluating factor when applying for jobs, because this illusory balance is crucial in ensuring a long-run for the employee, irrespective of their field. Amid the drudgery of routines and attempts to try and change it only to fall back into the trap, is an eye-popping prediction by multinational financial services firm, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. During a conversation with Bloomberg TV, Dimon articulated how future generations of employees were likely to be partaking in work weeks as minimal as 3.5 days — a massive switch from the rule of thumb 5, or in some cases, 6-day work weeks. How? AI. You may or may not understand much of artificial intelligence, but that answer sure made sense in your head. Now just to have this 'prediction' treated with some seriousness, a McKinsey report corroborates the fact that AI has the potential of automating work forces by as much as 60% to 70%. In a ripple effect, this is supposed to in effect, add trillions to the economy.
But is this really a good thing?
For a predicted change of course as mammoth as this, it is imperative we attempt to read between the lines. Anybody would take the 3.5-day work week in a heartbeat. But with predictions of almost 60% to 70% of work becoming AI-automated, where does that leave employees when it comes to gauging their job security? Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs for instance, has predicted how as many as 300 million jobs could be impacted. To answer the question, only time will tell.
We are closer to 2050 now than we were 20 years back. But that mythical mental image of flying cars and 'futuristic' (whatever that may actually mean) antenna-head buildings is yet to be achieved. Maybe this seemingly optimistic prediction is a soft-form projection of it?