Why IWG’s CEO Doesn’t Believe in the Four Day Working Week

Mark Dixon, CEO and founder of serviced office provider International Workplace Group (IWG) has revealed to Fortune that he believes the four day work week will materialise “no time soon”. 

He explains that his scepticism around the four day work week stems from a business environment where costs are rising and productivity is a key driver. 

Mark says: “Everyone’s having to control their labour costs because all costs have gone up so much, and you can’t get any more money from customers, so therefore you have got to get more out of people.”

As the CEO of the world’s largest workspace model, Mark has worked closely with industry leaders –  IWG serves over four thousand locations and 85% of the Fortune 500.

Based on this level of access to leading global businesses, Mark says that he hasn’t seen organisations slowing down as a result of AI integration, adding that “everyone is focused on productivity”.

Will the future of work really be ‘optional’?

Mark’s comments differ from recent claims made by Elon Musk, who has said that AI and robotics will make work entirely optional in the next 10 to 20 years. 

At the US-Saudi Investment Forum in November 2025, Elon said: “My prediction is that work will be optional. It’ll be like playing a video game or something like that.”

If people still want to work in this hypothetical future they can, Elon says, comparing the choice to work to that of growing a vegetable garden. 

He told those gathered at the forum: “You can go to the store and just buy some vegetables, or you can grow vegetables in your backyard. It’s much harder to grow vegetables in your backyard, and some people still do it because they like growing vegetables.”

The future of work in an age of AI

The extent of AI's impact on the workplace continues to be a divisive subject for global business leaders. 

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan told attendees at the America Business Forum in November 2025 that his guess was that “the developed world will be working three and a half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years, and have wonderful lives.”

Agreeing with this sentiment is Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, who told The New York Times in September 2025: “I feel like if AI can make all of our lives better, why do we need to work for five days a week? 

“Every company will support three days, four days a week. I think this ultimately frees up everyone’s time.”

Despite these predictions Mark does not see a future where AI will reduce employee workload at IWG or beyond. 

He says: “AI will speed up companies' development, so there’ll be more work, it’ll just be different work”. 

This, he argues, has been a pattern since the Industrial Revolution, saying that “It’s impossible to stop progress”. 

As AI becomes more embedded in workplaces, he says that those who are most successful will be those who are successfully upskilled in AI, sharing that it is important for young people to be more selective when it comes to developing new skills.