AI is set to transform many aspects of everyday life, and per-hour work might be one of them.
Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia has argued that hourly work will become obsolete in an AI-driven world. He suggests that AI will accelerate workflows by a factor of 5 to 20, making it illogical to incentivize people to bill per hour. Instead, workers would strive for efficiency, leveraging AI to complete their tasks as quickly as possible and be compensated per project rather than per hour.
“We’re switching all remote work to project-based with monthly minimums instead of hourly rates,” he posted on X. “Hourly work doesn’t make sense in an AI world, where humans can move 5-20x faster. Doing your work more efficiently means you get paid less. On the other hand, project-based work means contractors get paid a higher effective hourly rate if they can maximally harness AI—and customers get what they want the fastest,” he added.
This is a compelling argument. Lavingia suggests that as AI significantly boosts productivity over the coming years, paying employees per hour may no longer be practical. Instead, a task-based compensation model would make more sense, leaving it to employees to leverage AI as much as possible to complete their work efficiently. This approach would ensure that employees are incentivized to integrate AI-driven solutions into their workflows. Under an hourly model, workers might be discouraged from using AI, as prolonging tasks could maximize their earnings. If project-based work becomes the norm, companies that adopt AI could gain a significant efficiency advantage over those that do not. Over time, this shift could lead to the gradual phasing out of per-hour work, particularly in white-collar professions.