Mandating Five-day a Week Return to Office May Be Easier Due to AI Impact

Two articles in the same day crossed my desk. Visa is cutting 7% of its employees in efficiency push as AI reshapes work. “Visa joins a growing list of companies that have cited AI as a key factor in recent layoffs, including Microsoft, Oracle, Meta, Cisco, Cloudflare, PayPal, Atlassian, and Standard Chartered.” Business Today 8/12/26 “TikTok Turns to a 5-Day Office Policy as RTO Mandates Continue to Lead in 2026” The HR Digest 8/11/26  How and why do I think these two trends may be connected?  As more employees are in danger of being laid off due to Ai creating work efficiencies that allow more productivity with less workers, including employees who were once thought of as ‘sacred’, companies are less hampered in mandating five-day workweeks as they are less fearful of losing employees who do not want to come into the office five days a week.