Rohan Dhawan, founder and CEO of the education consultancy firm UAbility, recently shared on his LinkedIn profile his personal observations about how his family negatively viewed working at an artificial intelligence startup. He shared what transpired when he met his 24-year-old nephew a few days ago.
Dhawan couldn’t ignore that the young man, who remotely earns Rs 40 lakhs per year at a YC-backed AI startup, was still being doubted by his parents, who prefer a more conventional perception of careers and professional journeys. Dhawan noted that many people from the older generation, including his relatives, have internalised and normalised the conventional idea that being invested in a job should look like “burning 12-hour days for half the salary.”
Disclaimer: The content in this article is based on a viral social media discussion and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only.
Older vs younger generation divide deepens while facing new age of AI jobs
As his relatives failed to come to terms with his nephew’s AI job, which had “compressed 8 hours of work into 3-4 hours of focused effort,” Dhawan confessed that his nephew’s father pulled him aside to speak in confidence. The UAbility founder admitted that he had no answer for his “exceptional” nephew’s parents.
“Rohan, ye kuch karta hi nahi. 2-3 ghante laptop kholta hai aur band kar deta hai. Kuch illegal toh nahi kar raha?” (Rohan, he doesn’t do anything. Just opens his laptop for 2-3 hours and then closes it. Hope he’s not doing anything illegal.)
“Had he been at a TCS/Infosys, burning 12-hour days for half the salary – that would’ve made them proud,” Rohan Dhawan wrote in his LinkedIn post. Simultaneously, he pointed out that at just 24, his nephew was “earning more than most people twice his age,” but it seemed as if his family’s biggest concern was that “he’s not suffering enough.”
Dhawan added that a “sharp” developer with the right tools can out-execute a person grinding for 12 hours a day, the old way. On the contrary, his nephew’s parents felt “embarrassed” that their son was capable of finishing work early. “Pretending to be busier than they are because exhaustion looks respectable and ease looks illegal,” he added.
Urging a change in the current situation, the UAbility CEO said, “Output should matter more than optics. Results should matter more than hours.” He also requested the older generation to question their own “measurements” of success instead of doubting their children.
Other industry officials react to the AI debate
While some agreed with Rohan Dhawan’s new vision of work ethic, others couldn’t help but echo the thoughts of his nephew’s parents.
Dibyendu Biswas, the CEO at Websofttechs, stood by Dhawan’s side and commented, “AI and modern tools compress effort. If a 24-year-old produces more in 4 hours than most do in 12, that’s success, not laziness. We need to shift how we define work and achievement.”
Meanwhile, Shyam Krishnamurthy, the founder of The Interview Portal, agreed with the parents. “Work is work. Money has its worth. You work for 8 hours to earn. Looks like people have a misconception that AI can compress 8 hours to 1 hour. It doesnt work that way,” he wrote under Dhawan’s post. “8 hours need not be a hard and fast rule. But working 2-3 hours a day at age 24 sounds very abnormal to me that too remotely. I am totally against being overworked, but at that age I was gearing to work because I was so enthusiastic.”
An International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad alum said, “I agree with your point, but I also think parents’ concern sometimes comes from uncertainty rather than old-school thinking alone. Today, high income with low visible effort can be hard for many families to understand, especially when there are also illegitimate ways people make money online. The real need is more awareness about how modern work and AI-driven productivity actually look.”
Meanwhile, a fellow AI techie jokingly said that while parents don’t think he’s doing “something illegal yet,” they still think that doing something “online or on a laptop has no sustainability and it’s still a bubble.”
Does AI reduce work hours?
Contrary to popular claims, research from Harvard Business Review suggested, “AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.” During an eight-month study of how generative AI transformed work habits at a US-based tech company with about 200 employees, the HBR found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, even without being asked to do so.
It even identified three main forms of intensification: task expansion, blurred boundaries between work and non-work, and more multitasking.
“Our findings suggest that without intention, AI makes it easier to do more—but harder to stop,” the Harvard Business Review concluded. “An AI practice offers a counterbalance: a way to preserve moments for recovery and reflection even as work accelerates. The question facing organizations is not whether AI will change work, but whether they will actively shape that change—or let it quietly shape them.”