Think tank study | AI to make a third of UK workforce switch to 4-day week by 2033

Artificial intelligence is likely to make nearly a third of the UK workforce switch to a four-day week within the next ten years, a new study from the think tank Autonomy has revealed.

In the report titled GPT-4 (Day Week), its authors say that roughly 8.8million UK workers, around 28% of the British workforce, could reduce their 44-hour week to a 32-hour working week by 2023.

This is because of the expected productivity gains this powerful technology is likely to bestow on society, freeing up a significant number of tasks, and therefore time, for employees across a variety of industries.

“Our research offers a fresh perspective in debates around how AI can be utilised for good,” said Will Stronge, the director of research at Autonomy. “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.”