SpiralAI Moves to a Four-Day Week With Full Pay, Using AI

A reaction nobody expected

CEO Yuichi Sasaki assumed the staff would be delighted. They were not. "I thought everyone would be happy, but not a single person said 'great,'" he recalled with a wry smile. Younger employees looked anxious, and directors asked pointedly whether they could really take responsibility for results.

The worry was practical. Deadlines and quality standards for clients had not changed, so employees doubted that a fifth less time could still produce the same work. Clients themselves raised almost no questions about the new schedule.

Why shorten the week at all

Sasaki says the idea came from his earlier consulting work on corporate digital transformation, where he saw how hard it is to change how people work. SpiralAI already used generative AI for tasks such as coding, but he felt a stronger push was needed.

Cutting hours was that push. With 20% less time, everyone has to be about 20% more efficient. "The aim was not to make AI nice to have, but to make it necessary," he said.

SpiralAI develops AI that expresses human-like emotion and conversation, built on its own engine, Geppetto. Its products include services for chatting with anime characters and real public figures, as well as game development. About four months after the change, the company is assessing how the shorter week is working in practice.