The 24/7 AI operation: will work ever stop?

You’ve all heard of the 9 till 5.

You might have heard of the 5 till 9.

But what about the 9 till 9?

I’m talking about 9pm till 9am — the overnight shift predominantly worked by your AI while you sleep.

I’ve found myself doing this more and more. I’ll kick off a long-running Codex task before going to bed, then wake up to the results in the morning.

In fact, the other day I even woke up in the middle of the night, noticed the process I’d started had finished, so kicked off another one before going back to sleep.

It’s not just overnight, either. If I’m leaving the house for a bit, it feels like the ideal opportunity to set a few tasks running while I’m away.

It got me thinking about where all this is heading.

There’s already pressure to maximise our weekly usage caps from our expensive AI subscriptions. But as agents continue to become more capable and trustworthy, work no longer has to stop when we do.

If we can have AI working for us 24/7, will having nothing chugging away in the background feel like wasted time?

Food for thought.