Back in 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes had a vision that would make any modern worker weep with envy.
He confidently predicted that by 2030, humans would need to work only 15 hours a week thanks to technological automation taking care of all the tedious stuff.
Nearly a century later, as we sit here in the 2nd half of 2025 checking our emails at 6 AM and logging back into our inboxes at 10 PM, it's safe to say Keynes might have been just a tad optimistic.
The irony is delicious, if not slightly bitter: we've achieved unprecedented technological sophistication, yet somehow managed to trap ourselves in what Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index calls the "infinite workday."
It's like we've invented the ultimate efficiency machine, only to discover it's actually a sophisticated hamster wheel.
The Numbers Don't Lie (But They Might Make You Cry)
Let's start with some sobering statistics that would make even the most optimistic futurist reach for their therapy app.
According to Microsoft's latest telemetry data,
40% of people are online checking emails at 6 AM. Not because they're early birds catching worms, but because the infinite workday demands it.
The average employee receives 117 emails daily (most skimmed in under a minute—truly the speed-reading champions we never asked to become) and 157 messages on Teams.
But here's where it gets really fun:
57% of meetings are called without prior notice, with interruptions happening every 2 minutes during core work hours.
That's right—every two minutes.
The peak productivity killer?
Half of these spontaneous meetings are scheduled between 9-11 AM and 1-3 PM—precisely when research shows our circadian rhythms make us most focused.
It's almost as if we've collectively agreed to sabotage ourselves in the most scientifically precise way possible.
More Efficient at Being Overwhelmed
Here's where the plot thickens like a bad corporate thriller. Research by scholars Wei Jiang, Junyoung Park, Rachel Xiao, and Shen Zhang between 2004 and 2023 revealed something that should make us all laugh if it weren't so tragic:
workers in AI-intensive occupations had more hours added to their work week compared to those in less AI-exposed jobs. An increase from the 25th to 75th percentile in AI exposure added over 2 hours to the weekly grind.
Think about that for a moment.
We created artificial intelligence to make our lives easier, and instead, it made us work longer.
The culprit is beautifully simple market economics colliding with human nature. As AI increases productivity, employers don't think, "Great, now everyone can go home early!"
Instead, they think, "Wonderful, now we can set even higher targets!" .
It's productivity inflation—the more efficient we become, the more we're expected to produce.
Recent studies show that while 90% of companies in four-day workweek trials reported maintained or increased productivity, and employees experienced better work-life balance, less burnout, and improved mental health, the reality for most workers is quite different.
In the UK's four-day week pilot, staff turnover dropped by 57%, and 15% of employees said no amount of money would induce them to return to a five-day schedule. Yet these successful models remain exceptions rather than the rule.
The Rise of the Digital Panopticon
If longer hours weren't enough, AI has also ushered in an era of workplace surveillance that would make George Orwell update his dystopian fiction. Remember when Bill Gates memorized his employees' license plates to track their arrival and departure times? Quaint, isn't it?
Now we have AI tools that can monitor everything from keystroke patterns to bathroom breaks.
AI-powered workplace monitoring has given employers unprecedented abilities to analyze work performance, creating what researchers call "automated performance scores" that provide real-time feedback not just on task completion, but on how workers stack up against their colleagues.
It's essentially being back in school, except instead of a teacher, you have an algorithmic overlord keeping score.
The psychological impact is profound. Cornell University research found that AI monitoring results in increased employee dissatisfaction and resistance, with workers complaining more, being less productive, and wanting to quit more.
The very technology designed to boost productivity is actually making workers miserable and less effective.
The key insight from workplace psychology research is that AI monitoring should support employee well-being rather than micromanage behavior, but the temptation to measure everything measurable has proven irresistible for many organizations.
The India Factor: Leading the Charge into Digital Exhaustion
Perhaps most telling is that India has become the largest user of ChatGPT, surpassing both the United States and Indonesia. This isn't just a fun fact—it's a canary in the coal mine. As Indian professionals increasingly turn to AI tools to manage their workload, they're simultaneously experiencing the same productivity paradox playing out globally.
P.S - Most Indians do love to work until 10-11 pm anyway, so this is nothing new to them
The tools that promise to free up time for strategic thinking instead create new pressures for output. Workflow management becomes streamlined, yes, but the time saved gets immediately absorbed by higher expectations and additional tasks. It's efficiency quicksand—the harder you work to get out, the deeper you sink.
The Night Shift Normalization
The fragmented focus throughout traditional work hours, combined with constant digital distractions, has led to an organic fusion of evening hours with the workday. This isn't a bug in the system—it's become a feature. Twenty-nine percent of people log back into their inbox by 10 PM on weekdays, and around 20% actively work over the weekend.
We've normalized the abnormal. What was once considered workaholic behavior has become standard operating procedure. The boundaries between personal time and work time haven't just blurred—they've been digitally shredded and scattered to the wind.
Four-Day Weeks vs. Infinite Days
While some progressive companies experiment with four-day work weeks (often with great success), the majority of organizations are moving in the opposite direction. YouGov research shows that nearly three out of five workers would prefer a four-day workweek over a salary increase, yet most find themselves trapped in an always-on culture that makes even a two-day weekend feel like a luxury.
The companies that have successfully implemented shorter weeks report remarkable results: improved job satisfaction, better mental and physical health, reduced burnout, fatigue, and sleep problems. But these organizations remain outliers in a business culture that still equates presence with productivity and busyness with importance.
The Human Cost of Digital Efficiency
Beyond the statistics and productivity metrics lies a more fundamental question: what are we optimizing for?
We've created systems that make us incredibly efficient at being perpetually busy, but we've lost sight of whether this efficiency serves any meaningful purpose.
The AI revolution promised to eliminate drudgery and free up human creativity for higher-order thinking. Instead, it's created a new kind of drudgery—the exhausting task of keeping up with machines that never tire, never need breaks, and never question whether working 60-hour weeks makes sense.
We're not just competing with our colleagues anymore; we're competing with algorithmic expectations of what human productivity should look like. And frankly, humans weren't designed to operate like well-oiled machines 24/7.
Reclaiming the Promise
So you ask, “Ok. What is the solution then?”
The solution isn't to abandon AI or return to pre-digital ways of working.
The technology itself isn't evil—it's how we've chosen to implement it that's created this paradox. Companies that successfully use AI to genuinely improve work-life balance do exist, but they require a fundamental shift in thinking about what productivity means.
Maybe it's time to dust off Keynes' original vision and ask: if we can make the same output in less time, why aren't we working less?
The answer reveals more about our cultural obsession with constant activity than it does about technological limitations.
Until we solve this riddle, we'll continue to live in the strange world where our smartest machines have made us work harder than ever—a dystopian comedy that would be hilarious if we weren't all starring in it.
The AI is coming to take our jobs. They're here to make sure we never stop doing them.
About the author: Rupesh Bhambwani is a technology enthusiast specializing in the broad technology industry dynamics and international technology policy.
When not obsessing over nanometer-scale transistors, energy requirements of AI models, real-world impacts of the AI revolution and staring at the stars, he can be found trying to explain to his relatives why their smartphones are actually miracles of modern engineering, usually to limited success.
Nice article Rupesh. My key takeway...
As AI increases productivity, employers don't think, "Great, now everyone can go home early!"
Instead, they think, "Wonderful, now we can set even higher targets!" .
This hit deep. Do you think we’ll ever actually choose to work less… or is busy the new badge?