Working 3.5 days a week? JPMorgan CEO says it will be possible with AI

When Jamie Dimon makes predictions, executives pay attention.

And at the America Business Forum in Miami, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase outlined a provocative vision: artificial intelligence will optimize our work schedules within our generation.

“It will affect every application, every job, every customer interaction,” Dimon said. “My guess is that the developed world will be working three and a half days a week in 20, 30 or 40 years — and living wonderful lives.”

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He’s not talking about hypotheses. Dimon turned JPMorgan into a true AI testing laboratory. Around 2,000 people are developing artificial intelligence systems; approximately 150,000 employees use advanced language models every week in internal documents; and the bank already operates hundreds of practical uses, ranging from fraud detection to legal review, financial agreements and marketing optimization.

Dimon’s “three and a half day week” prediction depends on this cumulative productivity. As AI takes over routine tasks, the same volume of work may require fewer hours. But he emphasizes that the transition will not be painless.

“It will eliminate jobs. People need to stop sticking their heads in the sand,” he warned during the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, arguing that companies and governments should plan reskilling programs, income assistance, relocation and, in some cases, early retirement, to avoid a social backlash. According to him, the bank is already building its strategies with this relocation mentality.

Dimon also points out that the economics of AI are not the same as those of the internet. The development of this technology is both capital and energy intensive; some highly publicized projects “won’t have the energy they need,” he said.

Investors, he said, should carefully analyze each investment in data centers and AI infrastructure on a case-by-case basis — evaluating who generates revenue, who bears construction and technology risks, and what happens if the chips or facilities don’t deliver as promised — rather than betting on the sector in a blanket way.

In his words: Some AI efforts will be “in a bubble,” but on the whole the technology will “probably be worth it.”

Dimon has a consistent message for executives: stop over-intellectualizing “model theology” and start using AI.

“Use it… in any business,” he said.

JPMorgan even created AI master classes for its top executives after discovering that many company leaders simply didn’t know what current tools were capable of. (One of the reactions Dimon cited was, “I didn’t know she could read 100,000 documents.”)

Overall, the future of work may have fewer hours but more value—if leaders do the hard part now. This means modernizing data so that AI can actually use it (“We spend a lot of money to get the data into the proper format… We’re not measuring how much that costs,” Dimon said); invest even in the face of energy restrictions; and create humane and responsible outlets for functions that will disappear.

Dimon’s bet is that what machines eliminate, well-run institutions will be able to rebuild — and that’s how a three-and-a-half-day work week can be achieved without destroying the social contract.

“You know, technology has its downsides. It’s used by bad people,” Dimon said at the forum. “But hug her.”