A four-day week is on the horizon, hedge fund titan and billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen told Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC's show Wednesday. squawk box exterior.
Not because workers are begging for it, or because research shows it improves work performance, or simply because it's popular around the world. Rather, Cohen (now CEO and chairman of his own hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management) said the rapid adoption of AI will finally make a four-day work week possible.
“My belief is that a four-day week is coming,” Cohen told Sorkin. “[With] Generally, I hear that the advent of AI will reduce productivity on Fridays, but I think this is a contingency. ”
The idea that AI can improve a company's bottom line on its own is an attractive idea. Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and current OpenAI board member, recently said he believes AI can replace “almost every” form of work. But he also took a more cautious approach, adding: “I don't think this is going to create a productivity miracle over the next three to five years.”
Mr. Cohen made no such prediction. Asked when exactly that change would occur, Cohen paused, saying, “It's hard to know.” But he quickly pivoted to how he, with a net worth of nearly $20 billion, would make money.
Investing in pastimes like golf, which could become even more popular among colleagues if Fridays at the office are eliminated, has become one of his focuses. When people eventually have more time for themselves, “leisure, travel, experiences, anything that's around you” will be a strong investment area, he said.
To some, Cohen may be best known for his amazing investments in sports. In 2020, he acquired 95% ownership of the New York Mets for more than $2.4 billion, the largest sale in Major League Baseball history. Last year, Cohen acquired the rights to the New York-based team of TGL, a high-tech golf league founded by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods and played in partnership with the PGA. In January, Cohen reportedly invested a historic $3 billion into the PGA Tour, along with several other billionaire sports owners.
However, even if you work four days a week, It wasn't like that “I probably would have invested in golf anyway, because I think I have a more long-term mindset,” he said. Nevertheless, Mr. Cohen's investment in golf “should fit into the theme of more leisure,” Mr. Sorkin said. More leisure time means more rounds of golf, he added. “The course looks like it will be crowded on Friday.”
Friday off may not be such a big change. This is already the busiest day in most offices. Stephen Ross, billionaire chairman of commercial landlord Vornado, said Fridays were “dead forever”, with some companies banning after-hours meetings and deadlines on Thursday, and then across the board. He said that productivity will decrease.
FYI, Cohen says just because some companies may institute a four-day week sooner than others doesn't mean Point72 staff should start dabbling in their own clubs. added. If his fund's manager takes a day off on Fridays when the market is open, “that's a problem,” he says. (Mr. Cohen aligns himself with other Wall Street bigwigs who have consistently opposed the modernization of full-time, in-office work, despite what employees want.)
But aside from hedge fund managers, “the vast majority of people will have the opportunity to play three games in a weekend at some point,” Cohen predicted.
That already includes the Mets, who play a doubleheader against Detroit tomorrow at Citi Field and play the Reds in Cincinnati throughout the weekend.