Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, has started a global controversy by saying that AI improvements might cut the standard workweek to just three days. During the National People’s Congress in China, he said that workers should just need two hours a day to do their jobs.
Context of the Statement
It was in a March 2026 interview with China News Weekly, while relevant discussions regarding the role of AI in society were taking place, that Lei Jun laid out this vision. His status as a National People’s Congress deputy, therefore, provided him with a unique platform to emphasize the opportunities that AI presents to rewrite industrial rules in conjunction with new job creation. He called for an open mind to welcome these changes, putting Xiaomi in the vanguard of this transformation with ecosystems such as HyperOS and HyperConnect.
Vision for AI-Driven Work
Jun sees the death of the 40-hour, five-day workweek as we know it, replaced with hyper-efficient schedules supercharged by automation. Artificial intelligence would take care of the routine, leaving humans free to do high-value work and improving life as well as productivity. This corresponds to Xiaomi’s strategic acceleration of AIOS (Artificial Intelligence Operating System), where by the end-year of 2026 chips, software and models come together for a single-home device experience.
Xiaomi’s Broader AI Strategy
The company is speeding up the process of integrating AI into hardware, including expanding robotics for homes and factories. In interviews with CCTV, Lei talked about how AI is growing at an incredible rate and how he wants all technologies to come together in a “grand convergence.” Xiaomi’s electric vehicle factories already employ AI to check things 10 times faster than people, which shows that manufacturing is changing.
Echoes from Other Tech Leaders
Eric Yuan, the CEO of Zoom, made similar forecasts at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. He said that by 2030, AI avatars would be able to handle emails and discussions, allowing for 3–4 day workweeks. Studies demonstrate that generative AI already saves workers 5.4% of their hours per week, which suggests that it could help more people work more efficiently.
Implications and Challenges
Critics are worried about job loss, while Lei sees it as a step toward better roles. Improved efficiency could change the way people work around the world, but policies need to be changed to make sure the changes are fair. Xiaomi’s efforts in robotics put it in a good position to dominate, possibly opening up trillion-yuan markets for domestic robots.