Eric Yuan started a company called Zoom many years ago. Zoom has become very popular because people used it to talk to each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of people stayed at home and worked online. Since then, Yuan has thought a lot about how technology can change the way we work.

Yuan thinks that in the future, people will only work three or four days a week. He believes that artificial intelligence — or AI — will help make this happen. AI programs can take on many of the jobs that people do today. For example, AI can go through your emails and find the important ones. It can also sit in on meetings for you. Yuan has already tried this himself. He set up an AI version of himself to speak at an important meeting while he did other work.

This has happened before in history. A long time ago, most people worked six days a week. Then a man called Henry Ford brought in new machines to his car factories. The machines helped workers do more in less time. After that, people only worked five days a week. Yuan thinks AI will set off an even bigger change.

Other famous people have backed up this idea. Bill Gates has said that people might work only two or three days a week in the future. Jensen Huang, the CEO of a big technology company called Nvidia, has also come out in support of a shorter workweek.

Of course, some people are worried. AI has already taken over some jobs, and others may go away in the future. But Yuan has pointed out that new jobs will also show up. Someone will need to look after the AI systems and check that they are working correctly.

The world of work has already started to change. The five-day workweek has been around for a long time — but it may not last forever.