Mark Cuban Says Automated Assistants Could Knock An Hour Off The Workday — Without Cutting Pay

Billionaire investor says large employers will let staff create and deploy automated helpers, a change he predicts will shave one hour from daily schedules while keeping wages intact.

Mark Cuban told a recent interviewer and posted on social media that he expects big, tech-savvy companies to let employees design and use automated assistants — software programs that can carry out multi-step work tasks — and that the result will be a shorter workday for many office workers. He argued these tools have lowered the barrier to inventing new products and services, allowing individuals with little formal training to prototype and ship ideas that previously required teams and expensive resources.

Cuban pointed to conversational systems such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini as examples of the type of technology empowering that shift, while acknowledging these systems can make errors and occasionally invent facts. He framed the change as a way for employers to give staff more free time without changing pay, saying companies could start by trimming about one hour from a typical workday. The comment followed similar notions from other tech leaders advocating for compressed schedules and greater flexibility.

Adoption is already widespread: more than four out of five Fortune 500 firms report they use autonomous software assistants in some capacity, according to recent industry analysis. Labor experts say the move could boost efficiency and morale, but they also warn of trade-offs. “If a company truly wants to shorten hours without cutting earnings, it needs transparent metrics and safeguards,” said Dana Morales, a workplace policy analyst at a public university, in a hypothetical interview. She added employers will have to manage accuracy problems, security concerns and the uneven capabilities of these tools across different job types.

There are open questions. Firms might respond to shorter days by trimming salaries; regulators and unions may demand clearer rules; and small businesses could struggle to match the investments of larger competitors. For now, Cuban’s prediction offers a concrete picture of one possible near-term change: a modest reduction in daily hours achieved through automation, with the ultimate impact depending on how employers choose to balance productivity gains and compensation.