Forget the four-day workweek: The CEO of the world’s largest workspace provider asserts it won’t materialize, despite predictions from Bill Gates and Elon Musk

In recent years, a billionaire co-founder, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Nvidia’s leader, and Elon Musk have all made the same forecast: The workweek is set to get shorter. They contend that automation will take over routine tasks, freeing up workers’ time and driving a four-day workweek toward becoming the norm. Gates has even put forward the idea of a

However, Mark Dixon, the CEO and founder of International Workplace Group (IWG), isn’t convinced. From his perspective as the head of the world’s largest flexible office provider—serving over 8 million users in 122 countries, with 85% of the among its clients—the numbers don’t align.

“Everyone is centered on productivity, so it won’t happen anytime soon,” Dixon states plainly.

“It boils down to labor costs,” Dixon explains to . The U.S. and U.K. are facing major crises. Simultaneously, he notes, businesses are grappling with a “cost of operating crisis.” 

“Everyone has to manage their labor costs because all expenses have risen sharply, and you can’t charge customers more, so you have to get more output from employees.”

In essence, companies can’t afford to pay the same salaries for fewer hours, nor can they pass the extra cost on to customers. Thus, any time ‘liberated’ by automation is much more likely to be filled with new tasks rather than given back to workers. 

Elon Musk says work will be optional in the future—but this CEO says AI may create more work, not less

Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures present AI as a path to greater leisure. The world’s wealthiest individual and the head of Space , and X, Elon Musk, has even predicted that work will become entirely “” and more akin to a hobby within as few as 10 years. 

In truth, Dixon posits that this scenario would only occur if there’s insufficient work to distribute, not because employers suddenly become generous. However, in his view, AI is far more likely to generate more work—rather than less. 

Every major technological transformation, he argues, has followed a similar pattern: initial fear of job displacement, followed by an expansion of opportunities.

“AI will accelerate companies’ growth, resulting in more work—it’ll just be different kinds of work,” he states.

Dixon notes that in 19th-century Britain, English textile workers protested against new automated machinery during the Industrial Revolution, fearing it would endanger their livelihoods, reduce wages, and devalue their skills. These workers were known as Luddites.

“They traveled across the country destroying looms to halt progress. Yet, in the end, you know about the Industrial Revolution. That’s the outcome of those looms and factory production.” As mass production made goods more accessible, retail expanded; more managers were required to supervise the machines; the middle grew, and so forth. 

Similarly, there was a comparable tangible fear when computers first emerged in the 1980s. A 1996 book documented people fearing they would become “slaves” to machines and feeling hostile toward computers.”

But since the rise of the PC (and later the internet, , social media, etc.), most professions have undergone a digital transformation—rather than vanishing entirely. 

Copywriters now use laptops instead of typewriters; designers use Adobe Photoshop instead of pen and paper; and a multitude of IT roles have been created in the process. 

“Stopping progress is impossible,” Dixon concludes.  

“Companies must do what they need to do, and it’s crucial for young people entering the job market to put in a bit more effort to choose the right jobs, the right paths, and acquire additional skills such as in AI. No matter what job you pursue, you need to be proficient in technology.”