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Who is Eric-Yuan? Zoom CEO teases companies to soon adopt 3-day work policy, reveals why
The CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, believes the rise of AI will transform work culture, potentially replacing the five-day workweek with three- or four-day schedules.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, the most recent tech leader to suggest a radical rethinking of office life in the era of artificial intelligence, believes that the five-day workweek may soon become a thing of the past.
“I feel like if AI can make all of our lives better, why do we need to work for five days a week?” the founder and CEO of video conferencing startup Zoom Technologies, Inc. asked The New York Times.
According to Yuan, most businesses will soon switch to three- or four-day weekly schedules as automation replaces the requirement for human labor that is available around-the-clock.
“Every company will support three days, four days a week. I think this ultimately frees up everyone's time,” he continued.
The Zoom CEO admitted that employment losses are unavoidable when AI agents replace human labor, even if he presented the change as a net benefit.
The remarks support a rising trend among business executives who think AI technologies will change not just how people work, but also when they work.
Eric Yuan talks about digital agents
Yuan's remarks are in line with those of other tech luminaries who have also suggested a shorter workweek, such as Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.
Some CEOs anticipate widespread layoffs and job losses, while others envision a time of relaxation and creativity.
According to Yuan, whenever there is a paradigm change in technology, some career prospects are lost, but new ones will also arise.
“For some jobs, like entry-level engineers, we can use A.I. to write code. However, you still need to manage that code. You also create a lot of digital agents, and you need someone to manage those agents,” he added.
Other experts take
Few months back, Bill Gates said on The Tonight Show that the human workload will drastically decrease due to the rapid advancement of AI.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who just saw his company's worth surpass $3 trillion in the midst of the AI boom, agreed with Bill Gates.
