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A four-day week is imminent, hedge-fund titan and billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen told Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday during a CNBC Squawk Box appearance<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not because workers have been begging for it<\/a>, or because studies confirm it improves work outcomes<\/a>, or even just because it\u2019s universally popular<\/a>. Rather, Cohen\u2014currently CEO and chairman of his hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management\u2014said the four-day workweek will finally be possible due to the rapid proliferation of AI<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy belief is a four-day workweek is coming,\u201d Cohen told Sorkin. \u201c[With] the advent of AI, generally, we hear\u2026people are not as productive on Fridays, and so I just think it\u2019s an eventuality.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of AI single-handedly improving companies\u2019 bottom lines is an alluring thought; former Treasury secretary and current OpenAI board member Larry Summers recently said<\/a> he thinks AI could replace \u201calmost all\u201d forms of labor. But he\u2019s also taking a more measured approach, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t think that this is going to drive a productivity miracle in the next three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n Cohen gave no such predictions. Asked when exactly the shift would be coming, Cohen demurred, saying it\u2019s \u201chard to know.\u201d But he quickly pivoted towards how he, whose net worth nears $20 billion<\/a>, stands to profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Investing in pastimes like golf\u2014which would potentially become more popular among his peers, should Fridays at the office go extinct\u2014has become one of his focuses. If people end up having more time to themselves, \u201canything around\u2026leisure, travel, experiences,\u201d would all make for strong investment areas, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To some, Cohen may be best known for his eye-popping investments in sports. In 2020, he gained 95% ownership<\/a> of the New York Mets for over $2.4 billion\u2014the largest-ever sale in Major League Baseball. Last year, Cohen acquired the rights<\/a> to a New York-based team in TGL, a high-tech golf league started by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods that plays in partnership with PGA. In January of this year, Cohen\u2014alongside a handful of other billionaire sports owners\u2014reportedly invested a historic $3 billion<\/a> into the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n But even if a four-day workweek weren\u2019t <\/em>on the horizon, \u201cI think I would have done the golf investment anyway, because I think there\u2019s a longer-term thought,\u201d he said. Nonetheless, Cohen\u2019s golf investments, he told Sorkin, \u201cshould fit into a theme of more leisure.\u201d More leisure means more golf rounds, he added. \u201cI guess courses will be crowded on Fridays.\u201d<\/p>\n Fridays off may not be such a huge sea change. They already are, by far, the emptiest days at most offices; Steven Roth, the billionaire chairman of commercial landlord Vornado, said Fridays are \u201cdead forever\u201d,<\/a> and some companies have banned meetings and deadlines<\/a> after close of business Thursday, after which productivity drops off generally.\u00a0<\/p>\n For good measure, Cohen added, just because some companies may enact a four-day workweek sooner than others, his staff at Point72 shouldn\u2019t start reaching for their clubs. If managers at his fund take off Fridays when the market is open, \u201cthat\u2019s a problem,\u201d he said. (Cohen is in lockstep with other Wall Street bigwigs<\/a> who habitually oppose any modernization of the full-time, in-office synchronous workweek, despite what their workforce desires.)<\/p>\n But putting aside hedge fund managers, \u201cthe vast majority of people will get an opportunity, I think, at some point, to have a three-game weekend,\u201d Cohen predicted.<\/p>\n That already includes the Mets, for one, who will compete against Detroit in a double-header tomorrow at Citi Field\u2014and face the Reds in Cincinnati all weekend long.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to the CEO Daily newsletter to get the CEO perspective on the biggest headlines in business. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n