Work has long been treated as moral currency. The longer the hours, the greater the virtue. In modern economies, exhaustion often signals commitment. Productivity is measured in time spent, not outcomes delivered. The corporate India has always clapped for the ones who have traded sleep and sanity to walk more miles than the KRAs.This belief has found powerful defenders. Business leaders like Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy have argued that young professionals should work 70 hours a week to fuel national growth. According to them, progress demands sacrifice, and rest is secondary.
Against this backdrop, Bill Gates offers a radically different idea. One that does not glorify longer hours. One that questions the need for them at all.The Microsoft co-founder believes artificial intelligence could reduce the standard workweek to just two days within the next decade. Not as an experiment, as a structural shift. His argument is simple. If machines can perform most routine tasks, human labour becomes less essential.
Why Gates thinks AI will shrink work
Gates has spoken about this vision repeatedly. Most recently, during an appearance on The Tonight Show. Though the interview aired earlier, his comments have resurfaced as AI tools move rapidly from novelty to necessity.He argues that AI can address workforce shortages in critical sectors. Healthcare could see wider access to medical advice through intelligent systems. Education could be reshaped by high-quality digital tutors. Manufacturing and logistics may function with minimal human involvement. In such a system, time becomes the new surplus.
From three days to two
This idea is not new for Gates. In 2023, during the early public adoption of tools like ChatGPT, he suggested a three-day workweek was plausible. AI’s pace has since changed his outlook. Automation is advancing faster than expected. Tasks once thought uniquely human are already being replicated. What remains, Gates believes, is not labour but judgment, creativity, and oversight. The rest can be automated.
Two philosophies, one unresolved question
The contrast is sharp. On one side is the traditional work ethic. Work longer, endure more, and measure worth in hours. On the other is a technological vision. Let machines absorb the burden. Let humans reclaim time.Yet technology alone does not decide outcomes. Productivity gains do not automatically translate into freedom. Without policy and cultural change, fewer workdays could remain a privilege rather than a right.
Will time be returned to workers?
History offers caution. Past technological revolutions promised liberation from labour. Most delivered higher output instead. The risk is familiar. AI may compress work into fewer hours, only to raise expectations within them.Gates remains optimistic. He sees AI as a chance to redesign work from the ground up. Not to extract more effort, but to demand less of it.
Whether societies choose that future is still unclear.
Between the 70-hour workweek and the two-day future lies a deeper debate. It is not about artificial intelligence. It is about values. About whether progress is defined by longer workdays, or by the freedom to live beyond them.
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